Israel today evacuated civilians living in villages close to the border with Lebanon and threatened to ‘destroy’ the country if the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah enters the conflict.

The military issued the evacuation order to residents living within two kilometres (1.2 miles) of the Israeli-Lebanese border as Israel fears reprisals from Hezbollah for its imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah terrorists have vowed to ‘respond’ to any move to invade Gaza with the group’s chief saying they are ‘fully prepared’ to join Hamas in its war against Israel, raising already heightened fears of an all-out conflict in the Middle East.

Residents of the 28 villages and settlements close to the Lebanese border will now be evacuated and put up in guesthouses in towns in the centre of Israel that are considered safer – but Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of rockets can strike any target in Israel including the main city Tel Aviv.

The evacuation order comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the nation was ‘approaching a fateful hour’ with more than 400,000 Israeli soldiers now gearing up for a battle in Gaza that will see street-fighting erupt in the tiny 25-mile long enclave.

More than one million people have now fled their homes in northern Gaza in scenes of chaos and despair in a desperate attempt to escape Israel’s imminent invasion and continued aerial bombardment of the Hamas-ruled territory.

But the United Nations has warned that a ‘spectre of death’ looms over Gaza where millions are stranded amid Israel’s total siege that is blocking food, water, medicine and fuel from reaching the enclave.

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