Lebanese flee ancient city of Baalbek as Israel launches new attacks

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Israel’s military has warned residents of the entire city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon to leave and has begun bombarding the outskirts as it pursues its attacks on militant group Hizbollah.

The orders to flee the ancient city came as senior US envoys are due to arrive in the Middle East on Thursday to pursue a diplomatic drive to end the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group.

Terrified Baalbek residents initially gathered near the city’s famed Roman ruins, thinking they would be safe from bombardment.

But Israeli evacuation orders also covered the historic site, and tens of thousands soon began fleeing, the region’s governor said. Israeli strikes this week have already killed at least 60 people in eastern Lebanon.

On Tuesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his top ministers to update them “on the diplomatic front relating to Lebanon”, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the person cautioned that there was not an “actionable or imminent deal yet”.

White House advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were expected in Israel on Thursday for further talks, the person familiar with the matter added. It remained unclear whether a concrete deal would be presented to end the year-long conflict between Israel and Hizbollah.

Israeli officials including Yoav Gallant, defence minister, have insisted that “negotiations will only be held under fire”, although previous US and French proposals have called for a pause in the fighting to facilitate a permanent deal.

Israel’s demands include the withdrawal of Hizbollah from southern Lebanon, as called for in UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the last open conflict between the foes in 2006. The resolution was never fully upheld by either party.

Lebanon is unlikely to agree to many of Israel’s demands, which include the freedom for Israel’s air force to fly over Lebanon, diplomats and Lebanese politicians have said.

While Hizbollah has been weakened, it remains the country’s dominant political and military player, and Lebanon’s weak caretaker government will not agree to a ceasefire without the group’s acquiescence.

Israeli officials have also demanded that UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) be given a stronger remit to uphold the demilitarisation of Lebanon’s south and the border region with Israel, potentially including areas north of the Litani river and critical border crossings with Syria.

Western diplomats and regional officials counselled caution with regard to reports of any imminent diplomatic breakthrough.  

“It doesn’t look good. We are hearing mixed messages [since] they have different voices inside Israel. They voice some maximalist positions which for us is a no-go, other leaks suggest there’s room for compromise,” a senior Lebanese official said.

A western diplomat said: “So far there isn’t [movement]….I am not sure what the Americans are bringing.”

People familiar with the ongoing talks have speculated that a “reinforced 1701” may include an international advisory group — to include the US and various European and Arab states — that would be tasked with monitoring whether the UN resolution was being upheld.

Much of Hizbollah’s leadership has been killed in Israeli air strikes, including the group’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and this month the Israel Defense Forces launched a massive ground invasion into Lebanon’s south to push the group back from the border region.  

Since the conflict erupted after Hizbollah fired at Israel in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, more than 2,700 Lebanese have been killed, the vast majority in recent weeks. More than 1mn people across Lebanon driven from their homes by Israel’s offensive.

Hizbollah has killed over 90 Israeli soldiers and civilians in northern Israel and southern Lebanon over the past year.

Israeli officials have said that the primary goal of the recent offensive is to allow the 60,000 displaced residents of their northern communities to return home safely.

But other Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have at times seemed to expand the objectives of the war — calling for a wholesale change in the power balance inside Lebanon and the marginalisation of Hizbollah.

Data visualisation by Aditi Bhandari