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Mayors of several border villages in southern Lebanon said Monday that they had received calls from the Israeli army asking them to force displaced people who had fled from neighboring Shiite-majority communities to leave the area.

“The Israeli army contacted me on Sunday, asking me to ‘clean up the village within twenty-four hours'”the mayor of Kaoukaba, a village in the Hasbaya region, told Agence France-Presse on Monday by telephone. According to him, 21 displaced families will have to leave Kaoukaba on Monday.

“I had no other choice”affirmed this councilor, than asking them to leave, “in order to prevent Israel from targeting them, while protecting the inhabitants of my village from danger”he explained.

The mayor added that he had been contacted several times by the Israeli army over the past week, who asked him to provide the names of those displaced in his area. “I refused to release the names, so as not to violate Lebanese laws, and I emphasized that they were innocent civilians, in an effort to keep them here.”he added.

A similar scenario occurred in the neighboring village of Abu Qamha, in the same region, whose mayor, Michel Abu Rachid, said he received a call from the Israeli army on Sunday, asking him for the names of the displaced people there, reports Agence France-Presse. Like his neighbor, he claimed not to have responded to this request.

Several other villages in the region reported having to ask displaced people to leave, following similar Israeli warnings.