Hezbollah Asks Border Villages’ Residents to Leave as Israeli Bombing Intensifies

Metula Israeli settlement as seen from the Lebanese town of Kafr Kila (EPA)
Metula Israeli settlement as seen from the Lebanese town of Kafr Kila (EPA)
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Hezbollah Asks Border Villages’ Residents to Leave as Israeli Bombing Intensifies

Metula Israeli settlement as seen from the Lebanese town of Kafr Kila (EPA)
Metula Israeli settlement as seen from the Lebanese town of Kafr Kila (EPA)

Hezbollah and the Israeli forces proceeded with an additional escalation in the border area, the majority of whose population was displaced on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah hit an Israeli military target with a drone about 12 kilometers from the nearest border point with Lebanon, while the Israeli forces relied on significant firepower resulting from air strikes.

Israel evacuated a large number of settlements and towns in Upper Galilee and Western Galilee to a depth of 7 km; Hezbollah asked the remaining residents of some villages located directly on the border in the region to leave.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that ten days ago, Hezbollah wished the remaining residents would leave the area following the significant Israeli military escalation and the targeting of civilian homes.

The sources explained that “some residents evacuated their homes, while others refused to leave.”

They noted that those who refuse to leave their homes either have no choice due to particular circumstances or are determined to stay and will not leave their homes.

A resident of Marjaayoun district “refused to move because of the difficulty of providing care for his sick mother outside the home, who suffers from health problems that have left her paralyzed,” said the sources. Therefore, he refuses to leave despite the danger threatening the residents.

- Air strikes

Israeli forces have intensified the frequency of air strikes in the last two weeks, targeting residential sites and populated neighborhoods.

In Kafr Kila, Israeli aircraft carried out intensive raids that created a belt of fire around the border town, the first of its kind since the outbreak of confrontations, killing three people, including two paramedics of Hezbollah’s al-Hayʾa al-Sahhiyya al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Health Committee).

Several homes were destroyed, and others were partially damaged, resulting from nearby bombings or raids, according to the sources.

On the other side of the border, Israeli authorities evacuated the settlements.

The Times of Israel newspaper quoted Tuesday the head of the northern Upper Galilee Reginal Council, Giora Zaltz, as warning that if Israel “doesn’t significantly harm Hezbollah’s ability to act,” the war will have been lost.

“On a national level, the north and the south will be taken 30 years backward,” he said.

He noted that after almost three months of war, there is still no government body dedicated to overseeing civilians from northern Israel, thousands of whom have been displaced.

“We want to come back to our industry, to farming, to high-tech, and education,” Zaltz says. “We will come back but don’t deserve to continue living in this enormous fear.”

Zaltz cautioned that they would be in a terrible place if the government didn’t start to assume responsibility for the North and the South.



Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani was set to raise his country’s new flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York Friday and to attend a UN Security Council briefing, the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning opposition offensive in December.

The three-starred flag that had previously been used by opposition groups has replaced the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country's official emblem, the Associated Press said.

The new authorities in Damascus have been courting Washington in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by the US and its allies in the wake of Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiraled into a civil war.

A delegation of Syrian officials traveled to the United States this week to attend World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington and UN meetings in New York. It was unclear if Trump administration officials would meet with al-Shibani during the visit.

The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the offensive that toppled Assad. Washington has also so far left the sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The opposition group al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organization.

Two Republican members of the US Congress, Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit and met with al-Sharaa and other government officials.

Mills told The Associated Press before meeting with al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise.”

Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, coordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.

He also said that al-Sharaa had said Syria could normalize relations with Israel “under the right conditions,” without specifying what those conditions are.

Other Western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The British government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.