Israeli order to evacuate

THE Israeli military yesterday ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nationsdeclared buffer zone established after the 2006 war.

The warnings issued yesterday signalled a possible broadening of Israel's incursion into southern Lebanon, which until now has

been confined to areas close to the border.

Israel has told people to leave Nabatieh, a provincial capital, and other communities north of the Litani river, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the UN Security Council after the 2006 war in a resolution that both sides accuse the

other of violating. Just after the warning, the Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli strike wounded four of its paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south.