Middle East Live: Israel army orders evacuation of zone in south Lebanon ahead of strikes

BREAKING: Israel carries out airstrikes on Deir Zahrani in southern Lebanon after ordering residents of a specific zone to evacuate ahead of attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah, Hezbollah's Al-Manar reports.

Israel is striking Deir Zahrani in southern Lebanon right now, hours after telling residents to get out.

The army ordered people to leave a specific zone early Monday, saying Hezbollah's activity compels it to act forcefully, and that it's targeting what it calls a Hezbollah terrorist facility. Al-Manar reported the airstrikes soon after. This is the same stretch of the south where Israeli strikes killed seven people and levelled a vacant hospital, according to Lebanese authorities. You can see what these towns already look like here.

And the wider region keeps tightening. Iran says it will declare an exclusion zone outside the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to blacklist any ship it identifies trying to pass. Traffic through the strait is down to about ten commodity ships a day, the lowest since May, and Brent is pushing toward ninety seven dollars.

On Saturday, just two vessels made it through. The world's most important oil chokepoint is going quiet.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.