An Israeli strike on Friday morning near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh has said.
Mr Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater, per Reuters.
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.
The escalating fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into the Middle East conflict raging on several fronts.
Nations worldwide have prepared contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Although no country has launched a large-scale military evacuation yet, some are chartering aircraft. People are also fleeing on their own.
US president Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an “all-out war” in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran’s largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.
However, Mr Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel’s military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.
“But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet.”
While the United States, the European Union, and other allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Mr Biden said the US was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran’s assault, which included Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities.
“We’re discussing that,” Biden told reporters.
