DAMASCUS: Some 500 people have crossed from Lebanon to war-torn Syria, a Syrian security official told AFP Tuesday, fleeing the deadliest Israeli bombardment since Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.
“Around 500 people crossed the border through the Qusayr and Dabousiya crossings between 4 pm (1300 GMT) and midnight” Monday, the security official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“Vehicles were still crossing in the early hours of the morning, with people heading towards friends’ and acquaintances’ homes in the Homs countryside and in the city of Homs,” he said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has fought alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the country’s civil war and wields influence on both sides of the border.
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Cab driver Osama Bilal, who often drives customers across the border, said he saw dozens of cars with Lebanese registration plates packed with passengers and their belongings at the Masnaa border crossing.
The crossing lies on the road to Damascus from Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold which was pounded by Israeli strikes on Monday.
Firas Makki, who fled from the Baalbek district, a Hezbollah stronghold, was among those seeking refuge over the border.
“There is no town in the Baalbek area that has not been targeted,” he said, adding his family was heading to a relative’s house in Damascus.
“Most of the men stayed behind, but we left with the women and children because they’re our priority and the children were very scared,” he said.
The intense bombardment that killed more than 550 people has stoked painful memories of Hezbollah’s last war with Israel in 2006 that lasted a little over a month.
An estimated 250,000 Lebanese fled to Syria in 2006, with about 70,000 of them heading to third countries, according to United Nations figures.
“What we experienced during the (2006) war was nothing compared to what we saw yesterday in one single day,” he said.