The few people remaining in Lebanon's south make the same dire prediction about Israel's bombardment and ground offensive against the militant group Hezbollah.
"We are having the same scenario as in Gaza," Hassan Dbouk, the mayor of Tyre, Lebanon's fourth-largest city, told the ABC.
Cr Dbouk leads the association of local councils for the villages around Tyre, many of which are being bombed by Israeli planes and raided by Israeli troops.
"We were just checking the damage of Teir Hafa [village] yesterday. It's completely destroyed, 95 per cent of buildings destroyed and nobody is living there," he said.
Mr Dbouk is a member of the Amal movement, a Shia political organisation that isn't aligned with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, has been exchanging rocket fire with Israel since the Gaza war began after the Hamas-led terrorist attack into southern Israel on October 7.
Mr Dbouk said there have been about eight Israeli air strikes inside Tyre itself and the municipality estimates three-quarters of the city's population, normally more than 200,000 people, have left.
"They are attacking mainly civilians," he said.
"The first attack on the city was 10 days [ago], 10 people were killed, four of them were employees of the municipality.
"There were two women who worked in the kitchen, one supervisor and one worker, this is an example."
The Israeli military has repeatedly said its attacks are aimed at Hezbollah fighters or positions and denies targeting civilians.
Inside a town under fire
Hezbollah is controlling media access to Tyre and where foreign journalists can film and photograph.
It did not allow the ABC to film in the old town, where many fishermen have left their homes because of air strikes.
Those fishermen now sit idly at the city's port, banned by the Israeli military from taking their boats to sea.
"There was some bombing in Tyre around us, so one of my Christian brothers and friends offered me his house and I moved from my house to his in the Christian neighbourhood," fisherman Kamal Istanbuli said.
"When it comes to my family, yes, I'm very scared for their safety, everything is different to me, war changes everything."
Like many remaining residents of Tyre, he fears the long-term impacts of Israel's offensive.
"It seems it will be a long war, a very long war because what they did in Gaza, they could do in Lebanon," he said.
"The Israelis don't care about anything. They have political interests between Israel and America, whatever the war brings in destruction to Lebanon, they don't care."
Displaced people on both sides of the border
Israel began bombing Lebanon only after Hezbollah started firing drones, anti-tank missiles and rockets at Israeli military bases and towns last year.
The Israeli military now says its strategy is to restore "long-term security" for residents of northern Israeli communities, more than 60,000 of whom have been evacuated.
The IDF extended a "closed military zone" in the country's north on Saturday, with a total ban on entry to several towns in the western Galilee area due to heavy fighting.
In southern Lebanon, Israel's campaign has damaged or destroyed dozens of villages and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee north.
The director of the Tyre response centre, Mortada Muhanna, says it is impossible to provide those remaining with things like bedding and food.
There are only 700 places in shelters in the city.
"Now we have about 6,000 displaced [in Tyre], 1,471 families … and we try to serve them, to provide them with some materials like mattresses, blankets, pillows, food parcels, hygiene kits," he said.
"Unfortunately for all these needs, there are very limited resources because we haven't enough resources for all families that are living here now."
Mr Muhanna said another 5,000 people had been displaced from one part of Tyre to another because of bombing.
Water, electricity and food are scarce
Displaced people have travelled north, with Beirut's streets, waterfront and schools being taken over for temporary accommodation.
But another problem for Tyre is that some families are returning south from other parts of Lebanon, despite warnings from Israel's military to stay away.
The city council said it was unable to provide water and electricity because Israel bombed the transmission lines to the country's south.
"This is one of the big problems, regarding food, water, electricity, communication, mobile, hygiene, medication," Cr Dbouk said.
"The acceleration of the needs is more than the response."
