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Lebanon-Syria crossing: Israeli strike hits key road near border point [1]
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Date: 2024-10
Israeli strike hits key road used to flee Lebanon
Reuters People are now fleeing on foot into Syria after an Israeli strike created a huge crater in the road
An Israeli air strike has hit near the main border crossing point for people fleeing the escalating bombing and ground campaign in Lebanon for neighbouring Syria. Israel's military said it had hit Hezbollah targets near the Masnaa crossing, and earlier claimed the group was using it to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. The strike on Friday destroyed a section of the road and effectively cut off vehicle access. People are still able to make the journey on foot, with pictures showing families clambering over rubble and scrambling through the four-metre crater in the road to get out of the country.
More than 300,000 people have left Lebanon for Syria in the past 10 days to flee the bombing, according to Lebanese government figures. The strike on Friday hit the road 700m from the checkpoint on the Lebanese side, and around 5km (3.1 miles) from the border itself. Aid workers said the destruction of the road near Masnaa crossing hinders both the movement of people and also food and humanitarian supplies. BBC Verify: A closer look at the crater damage near Syria’s border crossing "It will mean that goods which would normally come overland through that crossing - the cheapest, most effective way to bring commodities into that country - will also not be able to be received here," Matthew Hollingworth, the director of the UN's World Food programme, told the BBC.
Reuters Despite the strike people were still on the move on Friday to flee Lebanon
Video shows huge crater left by strike on key route out of Lebanon
Reuters The strike created a four-metre crater in the middle of the road, cutting off vehicle access
Mr Hollingworth stressed that it was essential for other routes leading out of Lebanon - particularly those in the north - to remain unhindered. "We really would press that they remain open because they will be critical for people to leave, and also for humanitarian commodities to come in," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The Masnaa crossing in Lebanon's east had been the main path for people to move into Syria, and then onto Jordan and the Gulf States, while in Lebanon the road had also connected west to the capital Beirut on the coast, which has been heavily bombed in recent days. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday said it had targeted a site at the border crossing where "weapons were transferred to Hezbollah", and also a 3.5km underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria, the location of which was not specified. In a statement issued before the strike, the IDF said the crossing had become the "primary border crossing for Hezbollah's weapons transfers" and accused the group of concealing "smuggling activity among civilian trucks and vehicles". It called on Lebanon to thoroughly inspect trucks. Many people moving east are Syrian nationals living in Lebanon, who have headed back to their own country to escape Israel's bombardments. The BBC spoke to one woman in Beirut, who had sent her son back to Syria this week because the capital was too dangerous. "I found a lot of people from our neighbourhood heading for Syria, so I sent him with them," she said. Syria's government said on Sunday that for the next week people crossing the border would no longer have to pay $100 to enter the country.
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[1] Url:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx20d0r8rvro
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