UN Agency Says Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Have Driven Half a Million People into Syria

People carry their belongings while crossing from Lebanon into Syria, as they walk past a crater caused in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that occurred early on Friday morning, at Jousieh crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Syria October 28, 2024. (Reuters)
People carry their belongings while crossing from Lebanon into Syria, as they walk past a crater caused in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that occurred early on Friday morning, at Jousieh crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Syria October 28, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Agency Says Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Have Driven Half a Million People into Syria

People carry their belongings while crossing from Lebanon into Syria, as they walk past a crater caused in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that occurred early on Friday morning, at Jousieh crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Syria October 28, 2024. (Reuters)
People carry their belongings while crossing from Lebanon into Syria, as they walk past a crater caused in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that occurred early on Friday morning, at Jousieh crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Syria October 28, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s escalated aerial bombardment of Lebanon has driven over half a million people to cross the border into Syria, overwhelming already strained resources.

Among the arrivals, an estimated 7,000 are pregnant, with about 800 expected to give birth within the next month, Muriel Mafico, the representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Syria, told The Associated Press.

“The majority of the people who arrived in Syria are women and children,” she said. “Once again, it is women and children who are paying a heavy price.”

Mafico said the UNFPA, along with its international and local partners, is providing services at the border as well as following up on those women who are ending up in shelters or staying with relatives in Syria.

But, she said, "the response so far is less than adequate due to the constraints on resources that we have.”

The Lebanese General Security recorded 361,300 Syrians and 177,864 Lebanese crossing into Syria between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1, according to a report by Lebanon’s crisis response unit.



30 Bodies Are Pulled from the Rubble of a Lebanon Apartment Building Struck by Israel

An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
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30 Bodies Are Pulled from the Rubble of a Lebanon Apartment Building Struck by Israel

An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon’s Civil Defense service said Wednesday they have pulled 30 bodies and remains out of the rubble of an apartment building in the town of Barja that Israel struck the night before. Search efforts were ongoing.

The airstrike Tuesday hit an area that had not been regularly targeted by Israeli military operations. It came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli military on the strike, and it was not immediately clear what the intended target was.

Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said it was unclear how many survivors or bodies were still trapped under the rubble.

“We hope that there isn’t anyone else, but the neighbors have said that there are still people (missing),” he said.

Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group have been clashing for more than a year, since Hezbollah started firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023 — a day after the deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.

The war on the Lebanese front has substantially escalated since mid-September, with Israel launching a massive aerial bombardment of much of Lebanon and a ground invasion.

More than 3,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the vast majority of them since Sept. 23. Israel has said it targets Hezbollah fighters and weapons caches, but hundreds of civilians have also been killed.