Israeli military radically expanded its use of unlawful “everybody-leave” orders, displacing hundreds of thousands of people across Lebanon
Israeli military also expanded “don’t come back” orders, with residents in southern Lebanon indefinitely barred from returning to villages within Israel’s unilaterally declared buffer zone covering 6% of the country.
In parts of southern Lebanon, the Israeli military’s forced displacement of civilians and prevention of their return amounts to unlawful transfer, which is a war crime
The Israeli military’s repeated use of unlawful mass “evacuation” and no-return orders to displace and terrify hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon flagrantly violates international humanitarian law, said Amnesty International. In southern Lebanon, these orders have been used as a deliberate tool to forcibly displace civilians from their homes, tens of thousands of whom Israel has then prevented from returning home. This constitutes unlawful transfer which, as a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, amounts to a war crime.
In a new investigation combining analysis of Israeli military orders issued to residents of Lebanon via X since 2024, interviews with people displaced from Israel’s unilaterally declared no-return zones, and open source analysis, Amnesty International found that the Israeli military radically expanded its use of mass displacement in Lebanon in 2026, subjecting far more residents, far more often, to a flood of unlawful mass “evacuation” orders, while it furthered its plan to destroy more homes and civilian infrastructure and depopulate large parts of the south.
“Over the past two and half years, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have taken a devastating toll on civilians. On top of this, Israel’s sweeping use of mass ‘evacuation’ orders covering large swathes of Lebanon have repeatedly and unlawfully displaced hundreds of thousands of people. In 2026, as in 2024, Israel’s indiscriminate orders
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