The warnings cause a rush to collect children and older relatives, and leave families with agonizing choices as they race for the blurry edges of the red-shaded maps. Entire villages have emptied, with over a million people fleeing<\/a> at the height of the fighting. Unlike Israel<\/a>, Lebanon has no air raid sirens or missile defenses, and no designated bomb shelters.<\/p>\n Israel says the warnings aim to keep civilians out of harm\u2019s way. It says Hezbollah has positioned fighters, tunnels and weapons in civilian areas across southern Lebanon, from which it has launched hundreds of drones and missiles<\/a> \u2014 without warning \u2014 into northern Israel.<\/p>\n International law experts say Israel\u2019s warnings are inconsistent and often overly broad and open-ended. They also come as Israel says it plans to occupy<\/a> a 6-mile wide buffer zone along the border and prevent people from returning until the threat from Hezbollah has been eliminated.<\/p>\n The latest war erupted on March 2, when, after holding its fire since a 2024 truce<\/a>, Hezbollah launched a surprise barrage of missiles into northern Israel in retaliation for the United States and Israel attacking Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n Israel has posted 132 online alerts since then \u2014 including seven covering over 50 towns in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect on April 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n Residents say the narrowly targeted warnings often come with short notice, causing chaos and confusion.<\/p>\n Ward Zein al-Din, 56, said that she heard glass shatter from shrapnel just minutes after her father received a call from the Israeli military that made him scream. They have since fled their southern village and taken shelter in a school. \u201cI didn\u2019t think we would survive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Then there are the maps shared on social media by Israel\u2019s Arabic-speaking military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, urging the entire population to relocate north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and in some cases even further north.<\/p>\n His blanket warnings also emptied out Beirut\u2019s crowded southern suburbs<\/a>, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, though many people have since returned. Large numbers of people remain displaced across the country, including over 115,000 in collective shelters, according to United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.<\/p>\n \u201cA legal tool is being used to achieve forced displacement,\u201d said Hussein Badreddine, a Lebanese expert in international law at the University of Sydney. \u201cWhen you evacuate entire areas and keep the orders open-ended, that\u2019s when the legality comes into question.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to numerous questions, the Israeli military said it issues warnings by phone, text, radio broadcast, social media and leaflets dropped from the air, in accordance with the \u201cprinciples of distinction, proportionality and feasible precautions\u201d under international law.<\/p>\n There was no warning on April 8<\/a>, when Israel struck a hundred targets in rapid succession, killing more than 350 people<\/a>, including in downtown Beirut<\/a>. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Lebanon\u2019s troubled history.<\/p>\n The military said Hezbollah commanders and operatives \u201cwere expected to be present at many of the sites.\u201d It remains unclear how many Hezbollah members were killed. More than 100 of those killed were women and children.<\/p>\n There have also been warnings without strikes. Earlier this month, Israel warned it would attack<\/a> the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, forcing it to close for several days. The strike never came.<\/p>\n Airstrikes shook the village of Kafr Tebnit when the war broke out. Adraee posted on X that residents should move to \u201cno less than 1,000 yards outside the village.\u201d<\/p>\n Hussein Farran headed to the city of Nabatiyeh, where he works for an electricity company. His wife, Rola Nahleh, and their 4-year-old daughter, Amal, joined relatives in Kfar Hatta, some 10 miles outside Adraee\u2019s red zone.<\/p>\n A month later, at 11:29 p.m. on April 4, Adraee called on residents to leave Kfar Hatta. It was one of 26 urgent warnings throughout the war posted between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen warnings are issued in the middle of the night, on platforms that not everyone uses, you can\u2019t expect everyone to get up and leave immediately,\u201d said Kristine Beckerle of Amnesty International. \u201cYou have people stuck on the road for 12, 13 hours trying to leave. You have elderly people who can\u2019t move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Nahleh told her husband by phone that hundreds of people were fleeing, many wearing their pajamas. They agreed it was safest to wait out the chaos until daybreak.<\/p>\n Two Israeli missiles hit their apartment at around 3 a.m., killing Nahleh, her mother, father, brother, sister and Amal, who had just started kindergarten.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if they gave us a warning, how does it justify killing a civilian family?\u201d Farran asked, gazing at their graves \u2014 cardboard signs smeared with handwritten Arabic because the war has made a proper burial in their village impossible.<\/p>\n \u201cThey weren\u2019t given a real chance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At first, Ali al-Salim thought it was a prank call, or a scammer trying to rob his abandoned house, as happened to his family during a previous war. The country code said Germany, but the caller identified himself as an Israeli officer and told al-Salim to evacuate north immediately.<\/p>\n As airstrikes inched closer, al-Salim, his wife and three sons fled their southern village of Siddiqin and arrived at a school in Haret Saida after 18 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic.<\/p>\n Analysts say the Israeli military often uses randomly generated international numbers since phone calls are not permitted between the two countries, technically at war for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no way to know if a call is real or fake,\u201d said Roland Abi Najem, a Lebanese cybersecurity expert. \u201cThe Israeli military benefits from the chaos that helps create a mass exodus.\u201d<\/p>\n The military declined to comment on how it calls Lebanese numbers.<\/p>\n Several days after fleeing, al-Salim heard that his home was hit by an Israeli missile. The shelter proved just as dangerous.<\/p>\n![\"Zeinab](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lebanon_Israel_Evacuation_Warnings_36_82.jpg\")
Zeinab Zeitoun, 50, right, and her husband, Mohammed Farran, 60, whose six members of their family were killed in a an Israeli airstrike in Kfar Hatta village, visit their graves at a cemetery where civilians and Hezbollah fighters temporary buried in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)
\nAlerts spark panicked flights<\/p>\n![\"Ali](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lebanon_Israel_Evacuation_Warnings_29955.jpg\")
Ali al-Salim, who fled his southern hometown of Siddiqin for a school shelter in Haret Saida after an anonymous caller identifying himself as from the Israeli military urged him to flee, gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)
\nNo warning before strikes that killed more than 350 people<\/p>\n![\"Displaced](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lebanon_Israel_Evacuation_Warnings_255_.jpg\")
Displaced children play with a ball at a school backyard that turned into a shelter for people who fled the Israeli airstrikes on their villages, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)
\nA dreaded late-night post<\/p>\n![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lebanon_Israel_Evacuation_Warnings_26_47.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes that hit without warning in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs and central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar, File)
\n\u2018No safety,\u2019 even after the truce<\/p>\n