Israel unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes overnight, targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs and severing the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
The strikes followed Israel’s warning for residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate areas outside the U.N.-designated buffer zone, as the yearlong conflict with Hezbollah intensifies.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a ground incursion into Lebanon, clashing with Hezbollah members along a narrow border strip.
Earlier strikes killed key Hezbollah figures, including its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The overnight blasts rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky, shaking buildings miles away in the Lebanese capital.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the intended target, and there was no immediate information on casualties.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area late Thursday.
The agency also reported that an Israeli airstrike led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing, from which tens of thousands of people fleeing the war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.
It gave no further details.
The airstrike that cut the busiest border crossing between the two countries came a day after an Israeli military spokesperson said Hezbollah had been trying to transport military equipment through the crossing.
Hezbollah is believed to receive much of its support from Iran via Syria.
The group has a presence on both sides of the border, a region where it has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Dama Post, a pro-government Syrian media outlet, said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles, damaging the road between the Masnaa Border Crossing in Lebanon and the Syrian crossing point of Jdeidet Yabous.
It was the first time this major border crossing has been cut off since the beginning of the war. Lebanese General Security recorded 256,614 Syrian citizens and 82,264 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian territory between Sept. 23 – when Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon – and Sept. 30.
There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries, and most of them remain open.
Lebanon’s minister of public works said all border crossings between Lebanon and Syria are under the supervision of the state.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon’s southern border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 incursion in which the group killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a Hamas stronghold in the West Bank, in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.
Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted in October 2023. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of the worst violence.
Israel declared war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to their Oct. 7 incursion.
More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since then, with just over half of the dead being women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in that time, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
