China has urged its residents in Israel to leave “as soon as possible” as tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah rise.
“Currently, the situation along the Israel-Lebanon border is extremely tense, with frequent military conflicts,” China’s embassy in Israel said in a statement on Sunday.
“The security situation in Israel remains severe, complex, and unpredictable,” the statement added.
The embassy advised Chinese citizens in Israel to “return home or relocate to safer areas as soon as possible”.
On Sunday, Israel and Hezbollah pledged to increase their cross-border attacks, despite international appeals for both sides to back off from the verge of war.
Ibrahim Aqil, the chief of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, was killed in an Israeli air strike in a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut on Friday.
It followed a series of coordinated communications device attacks across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which killed 39 people and injured almost 3,000, and were blamed on Israel.
Last month, China advised its citizens in Lebanon to evacuate after an Israeli attack killed a prominent Palestinian fighter.