The Israel Defense Forces carried out a series of strikes on several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday evening that it said were used by Hezbollah to manufacture drones, and in a separate instance, also issued evacuation warnings for two areas in a southern Lebanon town.

Ahead of the strikes, which began shortly after 10 p.m., the military said it had”identified that Hezbollah’s aerial unit (127) is working to produce many thousands of UAVs, under the guidance and funding of Iranian terror officials.”

This was happening, the military said, “despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon” as laid out in a November ceasefire agreement that halted more than a year of fighting along Israel’s northern border.

It said that Hezbollah was working to expand its drone manufacturing process to prepare for a future war with Israel.

“This activity is a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The Hezbollah terror organization creates challenges for the Lebanese state and thus impairs the implementation of the understandings,” the IDF asserted.

As it always does, the military issued an evacuation warning for civilians in the vicinity of the targeted buildings.

“You are located near facilities belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on X.

“For your safety and the safety of your families, you are required to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them at a distance of no less than 300 meters,” said Adraee.

The post was accompanied by maps showing the locations of the soon-to-be targeted buildings.

A video circulating on social media following the evacuation warning showed heavy traffic in Dahiyeh, Beirut, as thousands of people tried to hurriedly leave the area.

AFP photographers reported massive numbers of people trying to flee the area, and Lebanese media reported that it was nearly emptied of inhabitants and had been sealed off.

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed ahead of the strikes that, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he had “instructed the IDF this evening to strike and destroy buildings used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah to manufacture and store drones in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of Beirut.”

“We will continue to enforce the terms of the ceasefire without any compromises, and we will not allow any party to make threats against the northern communities and all citizens of Israel,” said Katz.

He stressed that Israel holds the Lebanese government “directly responsible for preventing violations of the ceasefire and all terrorist activity against the State of Israel.”

Following the strikes in Beirut, the IDF issued a new evacuation warning for two areas in the southern Lebanese town of Ain Qana, and warned that it would soon strike Hezbollah assets in the vicinity.

Adraee again published maps showing the locations of several buildings that the military intended to target.

“You are located near facilities belonging to Hezbollah,” he said, calling on civilians to evacuate at least 500 meters from the areas for their safety.

Israel has continued to carry out targeted strikes on Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure since it signed a ceasefire with Lebanon in late November, alleging violations of the truce agreement.

According to the IDF, over 180 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in that time.

The ceasefire agreement brought to an end more than a year of fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, including two months of open war in southern Lebanon late last year.

Hezbollah began attacking military outposts and communities in northern Israel unprovoked on October 8, 2023, in a show of support for fellow Iranian proxy Hamas in Gaza after its assault on southern Israel a day earlier.

Under the terms of the ceasefire,  Hezbollah was required to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani and dismantle all military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Since then, the Lebanese state has been working methodically to dismantle the terror group’s infrastructure in the south of the country, and is estimated to have seized the majority of the terror group’s weapons stockpile in the same area.

Earlier on Thursday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that the Lebanese Armed Forces had dismantled “more than 500 military positions and arms depots” belonging to Hezbollah in the south of the country.”

In a televised address marking 100 days in office, Salam said his government was pressing ahead with reforms demanded by the international community.

“The state continues its action… to restore its authority over the entire national territory… and to have a monopoly on arms,” he said.

“The Lebanese army is continuing its deployment and has so far dismantled more than 500 military positions and arms depots south of the Litani River” about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Israeli border, Salam said.

The Lebanese premier also criticized Israel for maintaining troops at five locations within southern Lebanon, rather than fully withdrawing as the ceasefire had demanded.

“There can be no security or stability while Israel’s daily violations persist, parts of our land remain occupied and our prisoners are not freed,” he said.

Times of Israel staff and Agencies contributed to this report.