Israeli strikes on the Lebanon-Syria border: a “serious risk” for civilians, says Human Rights Watch

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On Friday, the Israeli army carried out a raid in eastern Lebanon near the Masnaa border crossing, cutting the main road between the two countries. An official from the Syrian Ministry of Transport, Sleiman Khalil, told AFP on Monday that “road traffic was still impossible on this axis” although pedestrians could nevertheless use it. Israel accuses the Lebanese movement Hezbollah of circulating weapons via this route. The strikes “prevent civilians from fleeing and hamper humanitarian operations,” HRW said in a statement.

The pro-Iran movement “does not take all possible precautions to protect civilians”

“An Israeli attack on a legitimate military target may be illegal if it is likely to cause harm to civilians disproportionate to military gains,” adds HRW. The Israeli army claimed to have struck “an underground tunnel used to smuggle weapons across the border.”

If Hezbollah uses the border to transfer weapons, the pro-Iranian movement “does not take all possible precautions to protect civilians”, also writes HRW. After the strike, an AFP photographer saw people going around the crater on foot to cross the border.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, visiting Beirut on Sunday, estimated that this strike “de facto blocks many people who seek shelter in Syria”. According to Lebanese authorities, more than 370,000 people, the majority Syrians, have crossed the border into Syria since the start of the intensification of Israeli strikes in Lebanon on September 23.

More than 774,000 Syrian refugees who fled the civil war in their country were registered in Lebanon by the UN before the escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. The Lebanese authorities, for their part, estimated their number at 2 million.

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