In a dangerous development, the Israeli army warned, on Wednesday, the residents of the city of Baalbek and two towns in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate in eastern Lebanon to evacuate immediately, a procedure that is usually followed by intense and bloody air strikes.

"Urgent warning to the residents of Baalbek and (the towns of) Ain Bourday and Douris," Israeli army spokesman for the Arab media, Avichay Adraee, said via the X platform.

He added: "You must evacuate your homes immediately and move outside the city and villages" via axes he specified in an attached map.

Adraee warned that the Israeli army "will act forcefully against Hezbollah's interests inside your city and villages," as he put it.

The population of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate is about 416 thousand people, and its center is Baalbek city, and its population is estimated at more than 100 thousand people, according to the Anadolu Agency correspondent.

The expected raids threaten the 3,000-year-old historic city of Baalbek, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Following previous raids during the current war, the “Dome of Doris” in the village of Doris, which is mainly inhabited by Lebanese Turkmen, was damaged. The dome was built using dilapidated Roman materials during the Ayyubid era.

The columns of this historic building, which was built in the 13th century, were damaged, and the stones began to fall under the weight of the fierce Israeli raids.

After clashes with factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, which began after Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing and wounding of more than 144,000 Palestinians, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the genocide since September 23 to include most areas of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, through air strikes, and also began a ground invasion in the south.

The aggression on Lebanon resulted in a total of 2,792 deaths and 12,772 injuries, including a large number of children and women, in addition to about 1.4 million displaced persons. Most of the victims and displaced persons were recorded after September 23, according to Anadolu Agency’s monitoring of the latest official Lebanese data announced until Tuesday evening.

Every day, Hezbollah responds by launching missiles, drones, and artillery shells targeting military sites, intelligence headquarters, military gatherings, and settlements. While Israel announces some of its human and material losses, military censorship imposes a strict blackout on most of the losses, according to observers.