STORY: Some displaced families spent the night on the streets in central Beirut's Martyrs' square following large-scale evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army for southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.

“We’re sleeping here in the streets - some are sleeping in their cars, some are sleeping on the street, some on the beach," said 43-year-old Jamal Seifeddin who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel carried out heavy airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut overnight after ordering its residents to leave, while the Iran-backed group warned Israelis to leave towns and villages at the frontier.

The Israeli military said it had carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight in the southern suburbs, saying targets included Hezbollah's command centres and weapons storage facilities.

On Thursday (March 5), an Israeli military spokesperson told residents of the southern suburbs to move east and north, posting a map showing four large districts of the capital he said they must leave, including areas adjacent to Beirut airport.

Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East on Monday (March 2), when Hezbollah opened fire, igniting a new Israeli offensive, with airstrikes focused on Beirut's southern suburbs and on southern and eastern Lebanon.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: DISPLACED PEOPLE IN BEIRUT'S MARTYRS' SQUARE / SOUNDBITES FROM LEBANESE

RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT.

SHOWS: BEIRUT, LEBANON (MARCH 6, 2026) (REUTERS - Access All)

1. DISPLACED FAMILIES SITTING ON THE GROUND AND GATHERING IN MARTYRS’ SQUARE IN CENTRAL BEIRUT

2. PEOPLE SLEEPING ON THE STREET

3. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERING NEAR A FIRE IN THE STREET

4. VARIOUS OF MAN SLEEPING ON THE GROUND / PEOPLE GATHERING NEARBY

5. DISPLACED PEOPLE GATHERING IN MARTYRS’ SQUARE

6. BILLBOARD WITH WRITING ON IT READING (Arabic): “We are the resistance, a national resistance against the occupying forces” / TENT SET UP BENEATH THE BILLBOARD

7. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE IN MARTYRS’ SQUARE / MEN SITTING NEXT TO BIRD IN CAGE

8. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED LEBANESE, JAMAL SEIFEDDIN, SAYING:

“We’re sleeping here in the streets - some are sleeping in their cars, some are sleeping on the street, some on the beach, we are homeless.”

9. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED LEBANESE, JAMAL SEIFEDDIN, SAYING:

"They displaced us and we left. This is what they call displacement. I’ve never slept on the ground like this in my life. I’ve been forced to sleep like this. No one even brought a blanket, they said 'tomorrow, after tomorrow'.”

10. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE IN MARTYRS’ SQUARE

11. PEOPLE WALKING ALONG STREET

12. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIVERSITY STUDENT, SARA MOUSSALLI, SAYING:

"Of course, it (the situation) is unacceptable and honestly, as Lebanese, what confuses one the most is that one doesn’t know whose side to be with - you can be with neither this side nor that side. Both of them, as they say, are more oppressive than the other, oppressing us as Lebanese. That’s why people can’t find a way to console themselves for how things have gotten to this point."

13. DISPLACED MAN GETTING OUT OF TENT

14. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED CHILDREN PLAYING AROUND

15. ELDERLY DISPLACED WOMAN SITTING ON STREET SIDE

16. DISPLACED PEOPLE IN THE STREET

17. ELDERLY DISPLACED WOMAN SITTING ON THE GROUND