Israel ordered residents of the cities of Baalbek, Ain bourday and Durous in the Bekaa valley to “immediately” evacuate on Wednesday morning before it started bombing what it said were Hezbollah facilities. This was the first evacuation order issued for the Bekaa valley and Baalbek specifically, a city famed for its ancient ruins, designated as a Unesco world heritage site. Previously, evacuation orders were confined to south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The mayor of Baalbek, Moustafa al-Chall, said that the evacuation order prompted many families to flee the city.

“A warning of this type naturally scares many people, many are leaving. It’s natural for many people who have no relation to any party or the war, the normal citizens, to leave,” al-Chall said. He added that around half of the city’s population had already left after Israel started an intense aerial campaign all over Lebanon on 23 September.

Previously, Israeli evacuation orders have started in specific areas, before expanding to include entire regions or cities. Over a quarter of the country is under Israeli evacuation orders according to the UN, displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The evacuation orders have come under criticism from Amnesty International, which said that they were often “inadequate” and seemed designed to provoke mass displacement. The rights group added that even if an evacuation order was issued, civilians in that area do not become a legitimate military target.

On Monday night, more than 60 people were killed and more than 120 injured in Israeli strikes in Baalbek-Hermel province, the bloodiest day for the region. Part of the famed Baalbek castle was damaged in the strikes. Last November, Lebanon’s ministry of culture removed the blue shield emblem which indicated Baalbek was a cultural site to be protected during conflict, saying that the destruction in Gaza showed that the shield would not protect the city’s ruins.