Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced Friday that the IDF plans to evacuate the northern city of Kiryat Shmona as tensions along the Lebanon border intensify.

“The Ministry of Defense & the IDF announce the evacuation of the northern city of Kiryat Shmona’s residents to state-subsidized guesthouses. The implementation of the evacuation program was approved by DM Yoav Gallant. The IDF notified the mayor of Kiryat Shmona a short while ago,” the Ministry of Defense announced on X on Friday morning.

The IDF has clashed with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Iranian-backed terror group, in several small skirmishes along the northern border in recent days. On Thursday, Kiryat Shmona, a town of 22,000 residents, was struck by anti-tank missiles and rockets launched from Lebanon. The Lebanese wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

The IDF subsequently attacked Hezbollah posts in southern Lebanon, noting that at least nine rockets had been shot from Lebanon into Israel, four of which were intercepted by the IDF’s Aerial Defense Array. The IDF responded by “returning fire to the origin of the strikes, thwarting a terrorist cell using an IDF unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and striking Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure using tank fire.”

On Friday, the Israeli Air Force released footage purporting to show three members of Hezbollah who were killed in an air strike while trying to cross the northern border.

“The response to the mistake you might make with our resistance will be resounding,” a senior Hezbollah official said during a rally in Beirut on Wednesday. “Because what we have is faith, and God is stronger than you, all your battleships, and all your weapons.” International media outlets reported that demonstrators waved Palestinian and Hezbollah flags while chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

On Thursday, the State Department asked all American citizens in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial flights still operated.

The IDF’s major focus remains the Gaza strip, where hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops have massed along the border in preparation for an expected ground incursion. The Israeli war council officially green lit the invasion on Thursday.