Eoff: The Israel defense forces issued their first evacuation order for downtown Beirut today ahead of airstrikes, along with a sweeping new evacuation order across southern Lebanon.

About 10% of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli evacuation notices.

This latest war has killed nearly 700 Lebanese and displaced some 800,000, including many Christians.

Special correspondent Simona foltyn reports from Beirut.

Simona: In Beirut, a Christian community mourns one of their own.

Killed in an Israeli strike in his village.

He had recently celebrated his 70th birthday.

Maria is his niece.

>> He was working, that's it.

And he was murdered.

E can find an explanation for why this could happen.

He just wanted to stay in his land where he grew up.

Simona: The mayor says there were no Hezbollah fighters in the village.

>> We thought there was no reason to bombard.

And you know very well we are an innocent people and we need to stay in our land, that's it.

Simona: It is a Christian majority village 70 miles south of Beirut.

It was one of the first to be drawn into the conflict and in - - in October 2023.

Hezbollah used its surroundings to fire rockets into Israel.

The news hour visited last summer after a cease-fire went into effect.

The villages raised funding to renovate the church, the bakery had reopened.

Despite regular cease-fire violations, they hoped they could rebuild and life could return to what it once was.

But after Hezbollah reentered the war last week, Israel dramatically escalated its attacks on Lebanon.

Israel warned dozens of villages including them to leave.

They say these evacuation orders caused forced displacement and are illegal under international law.

Residents refused to comply at first.

They gathered in the basement seeking protection.

The mayor encouraged them to stay.

>> Why should we leave our land and our people?

It is our right.

>> Hezbollah was there or whatever but now that moment, one year, four months, there isn't.

Simona: Despite that, the idf struck the village.

They first hit a police car.

>> They killed sami.

Directly.

I was next to him.

Simona: No one felt safe after that.

They had already withdrawn.

He had no choice, this is Sam organizing and evacuation convoy.

>> Maybe I go back, an old woman she told me where to leave?

I don't have money I can't go through.

If you stay, you are dead, definitely.

Simona: For the people left, at the funeral wake they mourn and also mourn their village.

>> Everybody feels like we are never going back again.

I love my home as well.

I lived there for 18 years.

Simona: The story of this village illustrates how Christians are being drawn into a conflict that is not their own.

In another border village, a priest was killed in a double tap Israeli attack.

He war has deepened sectarian tensions with some worried it could lead to external -- internal strike reminiscent of the war.

Flags have been put up to demarcate Christian areas.

The party is a staunch opponent of Hezbollah.

>> When they decided to reenter the war triggered by the events in Iran, so this is a suicide action taking the whole country, all of Lebanon into a regional conflict.

Simona: He blames Hezbollah for bringing Christian villages under Israeli fire.

>> They have in danger -- they have endangered the people who decided not to be part of that conflict.

Imona: This has made some Christian towns reluctant to flee the war.

N a small town north of Beirut, only a few dozen families have been assigned to the local school.

None of them want to show their faces.

>> When the shelling started, the children were crying.

We couldn't find a place to stay.

This place was available through the Lebanese army.

They provide all the services, everyone has a family member in the army.

Simona: The schools for shelters and Christian areas are tightly controlled to keep tensions at bay and to manage fears that they could become targets for Israeli airstrikes.

The officials at the school were reluctant to speak on camera, but they told us the only families sheltering here at the moment are those affiliated with state institutions like the Lebanese army and the civil defense.

They have mixed feelings about taking in the displaced.

They have empathy toward innocent civilians.

>> They are invited, we are like each other, it is not their fault, what happened is not their fault.

Simona: But they are also worried they could bring the war with them.

>> We need to protect ourselves.

If Israel wants to kill someone, if they want an Iranian, they will hit us like any other area.

Simona: Despite the divisions, there are also calls for unity.

>> To wake up and just understand that we are all human who live on this planet.

Simona: As Israeli troops launch a fresh ground incursion into the south, all its inhabitants stand to lose.

Geoff: The news hour requested comment from the Israel defense forces on some of the attacks Simona reported and they did not respond.

We will have a report from northern Israel tomorrow looking at the effects of the war there.

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