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Smuggling from Lebanon to Syria Grows

An elderly man rests outside after buying a bag of subsidized flatbread, as others continue to wait in a queue, in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 29, 2022, amid a shortage of wheat supplies. (AFP)
An elderly man rests outside after buying a bag of subsidized flatbread, as others continue to wait in a queue, in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 29, 2022, amid a shortage of wheat supplies. (AFP)
    Baalbek (eastern Lebanon) - Hussein Darwish
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Smuggling from Lebanon to Syria Grows

An elderly man rests outside after buying a bag of subsidized flatbread, as others continue to wait in a queue, in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 29, 2022, amid a shortage of wheat supplies. (AFP)
An elderly man rests outside after buying a bag of subsidized flatbread, as others continue to wait in a queue, in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 29, 2022, amid a shortage of wheat supplies. (AFP)

Smuggling between Lebanon and neighboring Syria has intensified in recent weeks.

Smugglers have expanded their operations to include not only fuel, but livestock, vegetables and cosmetic surgery instruments and supplies.

The smugglers are active along the porous 375-km border between Lebanon and Syria.

The smugglers are taking advantage of the US Caesar Act that prevents companies from importing goods to Syria. They are also exploiting the difference in prices between Lebanon and Syria, especially imports that are not manufactured in Syria.

Security sources in eastern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers have expanded their operations beyond their known routes in northeastern Lebanon.

They have now resorted to uninhabited areas that stretch from Yanta to Wadi al-Ashaer, Shebaa-Bint Jinn in the South, Lebanon’s eastern mountain range, Qosaya, Ain Zabad, Nahle, Arsal, Flita and the northern Bekaa in Lebanon’s far northeast.

The source counted eleven illegal crossings that span 22 kms.

It said smuggling has been growing since the Lebanese army completed its operation against extremists on the border in 2017 and has now peaked.

Civilians blamed the lax security measures and Lebanese state’s inability in securing the entire border for the rise in illegal activity.

The army had closed three illegal crossings in the past and continues to monitor them.

The Lebanese Central Bank’s subsidizing of several basic goods in 2021 was a main factor in driving up the smuggling.

Lebanon last year faced a severe shortage in fuel due to the smuggling to Syria where it is sold for a higher price and smugglers gain a higher profit.

So far in 2022, the smuggling of fuel has not risen to the heights of 2021, but that could change with Damascus raising the price of a tank of gas from 1,100 to 2,500 Syrian pounds.

The smuggling of flour and bread has been felt in Lebanon where a shortage last week led to long queues at bakeries and rise in a packet of bread to 30,000 Lebanese pounds, or a dollar. The government has since addressed the crisis.

Cigarettes are also in high demand in Syria. Smugglers have been sending over Lebanese brands and merchants have started to price them in dollars. A packet could cost as much as half a dollar. Foreign brands are priced higher and are also available depending on the demand.

The smuggling also includes Lebanese oils given the rise in oil prices worldwide. Cosmetic surgery supplies, such as Botox shots and fillers, are also being smuggled because Syria is barred from importing them due to the Ceasar Act.

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War Reaches Lebanon's Far North After Rare, Deadly Israeli Strike

First responders and locals search at the site of an Israeli strike in Ain Yaacoub, Akkar region, on November 12, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. - AFP
First responders and locals search at the site of an Israeli strike in Ain Yaacoub, Akkar region, on November 12, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. - AFP
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War Reaches Lebanon's Far North After Rare, Deadly Israeli Strike

First responders and locals search at the site of an Israeli strike in Ain Yaacoub, Akkar region, on November 12, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. - AFP
First responders and locals search at the site of an Israeli strike in Ain Yaacoub, Akkar region, on November 12, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. - AFP

A day after Israeli warplanes flattened their building, Lebanese residents helped rescuers scour the rubble for survivors, still reeling from the rare strike in the country's far north.

The bombing killed at least eight people in Ain Yaacoub, one of the northernmost villages Israel has struck, far from Lebanon's war-ravaged southern border.

"They hit a building where more than 30 people lived without any evacuation warning," said Mustafa Hamza, who lives near the site of the strike. "It's an indescribable massacre."

Following Monday’s strike on Ain Yaacoub, residents joined rescuers, using bare hands to sift through dust and chunks of concrete, hoping to find survivors.

The health ministry said the death toll was expected to rise, AFP reported.

On the ground, people could be seen pulling body parts from the rubble in the morning, following a long night of search operations.

In near-darkness, rescuers had struggled to locate survivors, using mobile phone lights and car headlamps in a remote area where national grid power is scarce.

For years, Syrians fleeing war in their home country, along with more recently displaced Lebanese escaping Israeli strikes, sought refuge in the remote Akkar region near the Syrian border, once seen as a haven.

"The situation is dire. People are shocked," Hamza told AFP. "People from all over the region have come here to try to help recover the victims."

The village, inhabited mostly by Sunni Muslims and Christians, lies far from the strongholds of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim movement.

A security source said Monday's air strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had relocated with his family to the building in Ain Yaacoub from south Lebanon.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said the strike was aimed at "a Hezbollah terrorist" and specified that the missile used sought to minimise civilian harm.

Local official Rony al-Hage told AFP that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since the full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war erupted in September.

After Israel ramped up its campaign of air raids, it also sent ground troops into south Lebanon.

"The people who were in my house were my uncle, his wife, and my sisters... A Syrian woman and her children who had been living here for 10 years, were also killed," said Hashem Hashem, the son of the building's owner.

His relatives had fled Israel's onslaught on south Lebanon seeking a safe haven in the Akkar region more than a month ago, he said.

The Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon has displaced at least 1.3 million people, nearly 900,000 of them inside the country, the United Nations migration agency says.

Israeli strikes outside Hezbollah strongholds have repeatedly targeted buildings where displaced civilians lived, with Lebanese security officials often telling AFP the targets were Hezbollah operatives.

On Sunday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat -- a rare strike north of the capital.

Earlier this month, authorities said an Israeli strike on a residential building killed at least 20 people in Barja, a town south of Beirut that is outside Hezbollah's area of influence.

The war erupted after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, with most of the deaths coming since late September.