Middle East latest: Israel’s retaliation against Iran will be ‘lethal, precise and surprising’, minister warns

By Ben van der Merwe, data journalist

For the past two weeks, Israel has been periodically ordering people in Lebanon to evacuate certain towns, villages and parts of the capital, Beirut.

Sky News analysis of the IDF’s evacuation orders shows that the area affected now covers 432 square kilometres of Lebanon, an area larger than the Gaza Strip and home to approximately 624,000 people.

That includes 35 hectares of Beirut, home to an estimated 350,000 people. These are areas surrounding buildings that Israel has singled out for destruction, alleging that they are used by Hezbollah.

In south Lebanon, evacuation orders have been applied to 83 towns and villages, home to an estimated 273,000 people.

Unlike during its evacuations in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military has not mapped out the specific areas that it expects people to leave. Instead, it has simply named a series of towns and villages to be evacuated.

In the southeast of Lebanon, three small villages remain without any official evacuation notice despite residents in all the surrounding villages being ordered to relocate.