Israel launched a series of strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday after ordering all residents of the densely populated area to evacuate. Traffic was gridlocked in Lebanon's capital on Thursday as panicked residents tried to flee after Israel's military issued an evacuation notice telling residents to "save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately," and specified which routes they should take to escape. Hours later, strikes began to hit the Beirut suburbs.

Since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, Israel has struck sites in Beirut's suburbs and issued a blanket warning for residents south of the Litani River - an area in southern Lebanon stretching to the border with Israel - to evacuate their homes, but had not previously issued a blanket evacuation order for Beirut's southern suburbs.