DAMASCUS: More than 22,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria this week via two border crossings, Syrian security sources said on Thursday, as Israel intensified airstrikes on Lebanon in a fresh cross-border escalation.
Reports indicate that over 6,000 Lebanese and approximately 15,000 Syrians have entered Syria through the Jdeidet Yabus border crossing, known in Lebanon as the Masnaa crossing. A second source said that around 1,000 Lebanese and about 500 Syrians used another border crossing to flee the Israeli violence.
Israeli strikes have forced many to leave their homes, with Lebanon hosting a significant population of Syrian refugees. Officially, more than 774,000 Syrians are registered with the United Nations in Lebanon; however, the country is estimated to host nearly two million refugees.
The ongoing Israeli violence has not spared the Syrian population. Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that 23 Syrians were killed in an overnight Israeli strike on the village of Yunin in the Bekaa Valley.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has confirmed that at least 87 Syrians — including 35 men, 16 women, and 36 children — have lost their lives in the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon, not accounting for the casualties from the Yunin strike.
The agency also reported that at least 338 Syrians, including 126 children, have been injured during the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced airstrikes on infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border, which it claims is used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons from Syria into Lebanon.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, stated that Israeli warplanes targeted a crossing linking Syria’s Qusayr area to Lebanon, resulting in several injuries — marking the first Israeli attack on Syrian territory since the latest round of strikes began.
