“The circumstances are becoming unbearable for civilians.”
That was the feeling spreading across parts of southern Lebanon on Wednesday as Israeli attacks intensified again, killing at least 16 people and injuring dozens more according to Lebanese health authorities.
The strikes hit several areas across the south, including roads, residential neighborhoods, and towns where families were already trying to leave after evacuation warnings from the Israeli military.
One of the deadliest attacks happened along the Adloun Highway, a route many civilians were using to escape toward safer areas further north. Lebanese state media said six members of the same family were killed there after a drone strike hit their vehicle at dawn.
Images from the area showed burned vehicles, shattered concrete, and smoke hanging over sections of the road as rescue workers moved through debris.
“People were trying to get out when the strike happened,” one resident told local media near the highway.
Across southern Lebanon, the atmosphere has shifted from tension to exhaustion for many families who have now moved multiple times in only a few months.
Some towns are nearly empty by evening.
Others are crowded with people arriving suddenly after fresh warnings spread online or through phone calls from relatives already fleeing nearby villages.
In Tyre, Israeli forces issued new evacuation notices before launching strikes around the city, continuing a pattern that has expanded deeper into southern Lebanon in recent weeks.
Israel says the operations are targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters. Hezbollah has continued launching drones and rockets toward Israeli positions and northern Israeli towns as fighting between both sides escalates despite ceasefire efforts pushed earlier this year.
But on the ground, civilians are carrying most of the visible damage.
A shop owner near Nabatieh said many businesses barely open now because people no longer know when strikes might begin.
“Some days the streets are full. Then suddenly everybody disappears again.”
The destruction is spreading far beyond front line border villages. Entire communities across southern Lebanon have emptied gradually as bombardments continue and displacement orders widen. Reuters reported that more than 100 towns and villages have been affected since fighting intensified again after the April ceasefire.
In some areas, residents return briefly during quiet hours to check homes, feed animals, or collect belongings before leaving again.
Others no longer try.
“There’s nothing left for us there now,” a displaced resident told Al Jazeera while leaving southern Lebanon with relatives.
The wider regional tension is also growing around the conflict.
As fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah, pressure involving Iran and the United States has added another dangerous layer to the situation, raising fears that the violence could spread even further across the region.
For many civilians in southern Lebanon though, those larger political calculations feel distant compared to the immediate reality of evacuation messages, air strikes, and uncertainty about whether homes will still be standing when they return.
And with attacks increasing again this week, that uncertainty is becoming harder to escape.
