Members of the Risala Scout Association and the Islamic Health Association closed the road in Bazourieh (Sour district) on June 10 after people of the village received threatening messages on their phones regarding an upcoming "military action."
BEIRUT — Residents of the village of Bazourieh (Sour) received warning messages on their phones, on Monday at dawn, presumably from Israel, stating that a building in the village was about to get targeted.
On Monday at 2 a.m., residents received messages urging them to evacuate their homes immediately due to an upcoming "military action" on a building in the village, according to residents' testimonies relayed by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in daily skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border since Oct. 8 following the start of the Gaza war. The village of Bazourieh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's ancestral village, is located in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have a strong presence.
A warning message written in Arabic received by a resident reads:
"Good evening. Haytham here. I have some urgent and important news for you. The four-story building located near Mousallem station will be targeted in the coming moments. You need to immediately make sure that everyone in the place is evacuated. You are responsible for everyone's life ... The building is about to blow up ..."
As a result, residents evacuated the concerned building and neighboring buildings. The messages were not signed by Israeli authorities.
Last week, minutes before a three-story building housing a warehouse was completely destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, several residents of Wadi Jilo (Sour) received warning messages on their phones. The message received last week is very similar to the one sent on Monday in terms of its structure and words used.
Read more
In Wadi Jilo, residents received anonymous warnings 10 mins before warehouse was flattened
Precautionary measures
Following the warning messages received by Bazourieh residents, school principals in the village asked the students not to attend on Monday as a precautionary measure. One of the principals told L'Orient Today that he asked students not to come "because of the situation and to protect their lives" and because he "can not predict what could happen."
Bazourieh's public secondary school announced in a statement the postponement of exams that were scheduled on Monday to another date that will be later determined.
In addition, members of the Amal-affiliated Risala Scout Association and Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Association took precautionary measures such as closing the road leading up to the building. The road was later reopened on Monday morning.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, the mukhtar of the village, Muhammad Abbas Diab, said that the situation in Bazourieh is now in limbo.
"Thank God nothing has happened yet," he said.
According to him, the residents who evacuated their homes took refuge with relatives and friends in the same village.
"The next few hours will tell if it's a joke or it's serious. I hope it's a joke so that nothing bad happens to the people of my village."
Contacted by L'Orient Today, the mayor of the village and two people who work there were not willing to speak about the matter.
Since the start of the war, 24 people have been killed on the Israeli side of the border, according to the Israeli military, while nearly 450 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of whom were members of Hezbollah.
