Civilians caught in path of Israeli invasion in southern Lebanon

[0:00] On Easter Sunday, Israel carried out a fresh wave of airstrikes on Lebanon's capital, Beirut. [0:05] At least 11 people were killed across the country that day, with dozens more injured. [0:10] Israel says it's targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. [0:14] The total death toll in Lebanon has reportedly now exceeded 1,500. [0:19] The southern city of Tyre also came under Israeli fire on Sunday. [0:24] Tyre, like much of Lebanon's south, has been placed under forced evacuation orders by the Israeli army. [0:30] Special correspondent Simona Fultin and videographer Adrienne Hartrick traveled to Tyre and had this report. [0:38] 63-year-old Mirvat Arnaout is living through Israel's fifth war with Lebanon, but this is the closest it has felt to home. [0:47] At 8 in the morning, our neighbors woke us up. We got up, still dressed in our pajamas, and we left the house. [0:53] We went down to the seaside. Then the strike came at 2.10 p.m. You see, the clock has stood still since then. [0:59] This is the airstrike on Tyre's old city that hit the building next to Mirvat's. [1:06] The blast was so powerful, it blew a hole into her kitchen and bedroom. [1:11] When she came back home, she found pieces of shrapnel among her broken furniture. [1:15] We are shocked. We don't know what to do. We are so tired, especially us, those suffering from sickness. [1:25] We are exhausted. We can't sleep because of the sound of the warplanes. [1:29] In a statement to the NewsHour, the IDF said it was targeting a Hezbollah weapon storage facility, but this was a residential building. [1:37] Mirvat knows the two families who live there and says neither had links with the Shia militant group. [1:41] The building has two floors, the house of Sheriff Fadden and the house of Yunus on the ground floor. [1:51] I know them. We are neighbors and close friends. [1:54] Tyre is a historic coastal city founded by the Phoenicians almost 5,000 years ago, [2:00] its ancient ruins designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2:04] But now, the tourist destination has earned a more sinister distinction. [2:08] It's among dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon placed under forced evacuation orders by the Israeli army, [2:15] which has told residents to flee. [2:18] Mirvat and her sister have decided to stay. [2:23] We were raised here. We have aged here. [2:26] Our house and our land is here entire. [2:29] Lebanon is our country. And now they want to occupy us? [2:32] That occupation has already begun. IDF ground troops have advanced around five miles into Lebanese territory [2:40] and have taken hills just south of Tyre, battling with Hezbollah fighters who are trying to slow their advance. [2:47] Last week, Israel's defense minister, Israel Kutz, said the IDF will occupy Lebanon up to the Litani, [2:54] a river that runs around 20 miles north of its border. [2:57] At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish itself in the security zone inside Lebanon, [3:05] on a defensive line against anti-tank missiles, [3:07] and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani. [3:12] That area accounts for almost 10 percent of Lebanon's territory and would include Tyre. [3:21] As part of these plans to occupy the south, Israel has destroyed at least seven bridges spanning the Litani. [3:27] This is the coastal highway, the main artery connecting Lebanon's south with the rest of the country. [3:32] That's a Lebanese army checkpoint right behind me. [3:35] And in front of me is one of the bridges that was destroyed in an Israeli strike. [3:39] Now, Israel claims that the destruction of bridges like these [3:42] serve to prevent Hezbollah fighters and weapons from reaching the border. [3:46] But in reality, what it has done is to isolate the south and impede the movement of civilians. [3:52] Only one bridge is left to connect Tyre to the rest of the country. [3:55] The town's deputy mayor, Alwan Sharafadin, is preparing for the worst. [4:03] There's fear that if that last remaining bridge is targeted, [4:06] we are headed towards a humanitarian catastrophe because our current provisions only last for about a week. [4:12] The flow of aid has been reduced to a trickle after Israel killed three UN peacekeepers [4:17] and 54 Lebanese first responders in the past month. [4:20] The problem is that the supply convoys that used to come from international agencies are not getting Israeli permission to cross. [4:31] If they don't receive Israeli assurances that they won't be struck, there won't be any aid coming. [4:36] Around 15 percent of Tyre's 60,000 residents remain, [4:40] in addition to 17,000 people who have fled towns and villages that have already fallen into Israeli hands. [4:46] Some have found refuge in schools like these. [4:51] Khadija and Nami are from the border village of Bleda, now occupied by the IDF. [4:56] They show me videos of their two houses, both of which were destroyed during the previous war back in 2024. [5:01] One house had three floors, the other one had two. [5:08] Both are gone. It's all messed up. [5:10] The furniture inside is gone. I have nothing left. [5:14] When a ceasefire was signed at the end of 2024, the family hoped they could slowly rebuild. [5:21] I put up solar panels because there was no electricity. [5:24] I brought a water tank. [5:26] I had fixed up one room. [5:27] Things were going OK, but then the war started again. [5:30] Many Shia Muslims in Lebanon's south support the resistance, which is what Hezbollah is called here. [5:36] With the Lebanese army withdrawing, they see the group as their only protector against Israel's invasion. [5:44] The resistance is doing a good job, and they won't stand down. [5:47] They won't let them occupy the country. [5:49] Do you have any hope that you can go back? [5:51] God willing, we will go back, and we will rebuild and make it more beautiful. [5:59] May God protect those young men. [6:03] We want to go back to our land, even if it's destroyed. [6:07] Even if we have to set up a tent. [6:09] That's our goal. [6:09] But Israel has no intention to allow civilians like Nami and Khadija to return. [6:15] Defense Minister Katz has vowed to replicate Israel's Gaza doctrine in Lebanon. [6:22] All houses in villages near the border in Lebanon will be destroyed, [6:26] according to the model of Rafa and Beit Hanun in Gaza, [6:29] to remove once and for all the threats near the border to northern residents. [6:33] The IDF has already begun to make good on these promises. [6:37] It has detonated at least two border villages in what seems to be a scorched earth policy [6:45] aimed at punishing Shia Muslims and making their areas uninhabitable. [6:50] The war has uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon. [6:54] This Syrian family fled instability back home and has now been displaced again. [6:59] They found no space in government-run shelters. [7:05] The house we were living in was destroyed. [7:08] There's no space for us. [7:10] They've registered us, but there's no space. [7:13] We are living by the grace of God. [7:15] The tarps offer little protection from the rain and cold, let alone from Israeli bombs. [7:21] But the family feels they have nowhere else to go. [7:25] Where in the north should we go? [7:26] They won't take us. [7:28] Should we go back to Syria? [7:29] There's no money. [7:30] Many of those left in Tyre are sick, elderly, or lack the means to leave. [7:36] But for others, the decision to remain is a political statement underpinned by a desire [7:41] to stay on their land until the end. [7:45] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Simona Faltin in Tyre, southern Lebanon. [7:50] And tomorrow we'll have a report from Israel where people have been marking the Passover and [7:54] Easter holidays under the shadow of war. [7:57] Support journalism you trust. [7:59] Support PBS News. [8:02] Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.