An Israeli airstrike has cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.
The airstrike Friday rendered the road unusable for cars, leaving people to go on foot to the Masnaa Border Crossing where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, Israel began a ground incursion into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group while also conducting strikes in Gaza. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
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Here is the latest:
Dutch military plane lands in Beirut to pick up civilians fleeing Lebanon
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch military transport plane landed in Beirut early Friday afternoon to pick up citizens of the Netherlands fleeing Lebanon amid fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
Scores of people are expected to board the A330 plane in what the Dutch foreign ministry called a repatriation flight.
The defense ministry says that if there were spare seats on the plane, it could also take citizens of other countries out of Beirut.
Meanwhile Japan’s foreign ministry announced that 11 Japanese and 4 French nationals were evacuated from Lebanon and arrived in Jordan Friday.
Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. Israeli jets also have been carrying out airstrikes in Lebanon, including one Friday that cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria.
War in Gaza leaves scores of children under the sole care of grandparents
KHAN YOUNIS, the Gaza Strip— Almost a year of war in Gaza has left thousands of children either orphaned or separated from their parents, leaving their grandparents with the task of raising them on their own.
Amir Ashour, 12, and his sister Fatima Ashour, 10, lost their parents and their 5-year-old brother Gheith when their house in Rafah was struck by the Israeli military in December 2023.
They are now being taken care of by their Atta Ashour, their grandfather from their mother’s side.
Sitting inside a tent, Fatima told The Associated Press she misses her parents and brother.
“My mother would comb my hair, dress me, and give me everything, and when I came back from school, she would help with schoolwork,” she said.
The war also left four orphans in the care of their 52-year-old grandmother Najah al-Eish, who is concerned that she will not live for long to take care of them.
“No matter how much I care for them and raise them, I might not always stay with them,” she said.
UNICEF estimates that 19,000 children are either unaccompanied, separated from family, or orphaned. The U.N. agency doesn’t have the exact number of orphans across the enclave.
Iran warns of harsh retaliation if Israel carries out an attack on Iran
BEIRUT – Iran’s foreign minister warned Israel on Friday that if it carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran will retaliate in a harsh way.
Abbas Araghchi was in Beirut for meetings with Lebanese officials. His visit came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Araghchi said after meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Israel says it struck an underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday its fighter jets struck an underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria and areas around a key border crossing used by many in recent days fleeing Israel’s offensive.
Thursday’s strikes around the Masnaa Border Crossing effectively cut off the main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. Tens of thousands of people fleeing fighting in Lebanon have used crossing into Syria over the past two weeks.
The military said that its fighter jets had struck the 3.5 kilometer-long (2.17 miles) underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria because Hezbollah has used it to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into the country. It said it struck the sites around the Masnaa border crossing because they were being used as militant infrastructure.
There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries, most of which are still open.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria.
UN refugee agency says main Lebanon-Syria border closed to vehicles
GENEVA — The U.N. refugee agency says Israeli airstrikes overnight near the main border crossing where people have been fleeing from Lebanon into Syria has “put a halt on traffic” and closed the route to vehicles.
UNHCR spokeswoman Rula Amin said the border crossing between Masnaa, Lebanon, and Jdaidit Yabws in Syria has been the main thoroughfare between the two countries, even though three other border crossings remain open.
Amin, a spokeswoman for UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa operations, also noted government figures that up to 1 million people have fled to places across Lebanon, and more than 185,000 have gone to Syria.
Speaking from Amman, Jordan, to reporters in Geneva on Friday, Amin said most of the nearly 900 government-established collective shelters in Lebanon were full, forcing many people to sleep in the open air — including along Beirut’s famed seaside Corniche.
She said 60% of people who have crossed from Lebanon to Syria were children or adolescents, some of whom arrived alone.
Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah communications chief
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division.
The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.
Hundreds of Americans leave Lebanon on US contract flights
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department says some 350 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon on US-organized contract flights this week.
The department announced the new number — up by about 100 since Thursday — after another flight from Beirut landed early Friday in Frankfurt, Germany. The flight had the capacity to carry 300 passengers but only 97 people were aboard, it said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday that the U.S. would continue to organize such flights as long as the security situation in Lebanon is dire and as long as there is demand.
More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the U.S. embassy in Beirut seeking information about departing the country over the past week since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated. Miller said the department understood that some Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Lebanese nationals and long-time residents of the country, may choose to stay.
Iran’s leader praises missile strike on Israel in a speech at Friday prayers
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel, state TV reported Friday.
Khamenei was leading Friday prayers and was to deliver a rare public sermon in the Iranian capital, Tehran, that was being watched for signs of what Iran might plan next.
In a 40-minute speech, he praised Tuesday’s missile barrage against Israel as a shining job by Iranian armed forces. “It will be done in the future again if it becomes necessary,” he said.
There was a commemoration ceremony for the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah beforehand. Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Revolutionary Guard’s top generals, attended the ceremony.
Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.
Also on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut, where he was expected to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah with Lebanese officials. Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Iran sent its first shipment of aid to Lebanon, including 10 tons of food and medicine.
Japan prepares to evacuate citizens from Lebanon, urging nationals in Iran to leave, too
TOKYO — As Japan prepared to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon, the government also urged those in Iran to leave as soon as possible, while commercial flights are still operating.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters Friday that Japan’s embassy in Iran renewed its safety advisory to Japanese nationals this week after Iran fired missiles into Israel.
On Thursday, the Japanese Defense Ministry dispatched two C-2 transport aircraft to Jordan to stand by for an evacuation of about 50 Japanese nationals from Lebanon. Iwaya said the government has not decided whether to also dispatch defense aircraft to Iran, where about 440 Japanese citizens are based, but “we will do our utmost so that we can respond to any contingency in order to protect the safety of Japanese citizens.”
Iran’s foreign minister is in Beirut to meet with Lebanese officials
BEIRUT — Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut where he will discuss with Lebanese officials the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.
The Iranian official arrived in Lebanon as Israel launched new airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon, including Beirut’s southern suburb, south Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Araghchi’s visit to Beirut came after Iran launched at least 180 missiles Tuesday into Israel, part of a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
Israeli strike cuts a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike has cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria.
The agency gave no further details about Friday’s airstrike that led to the closure of a road near the Masnaa Border Crossing, from where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks. It’s the first time this major border crossing has been cut off since the beginning of the war.
Lebanese General Security recorded more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and over 80,000 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian territory during the last week of September, after Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon.
Dama Post, a pro-government Syrian media outlet, said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles and damaged the road between Masnaa Border Crossing in Lebanon and the Syrian crossing point of Jdeidet Yabous.
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 work under the supervision of the state.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria. The Lebanese group has a presence on both sides of the border where it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Australia’s prime minister condemns comments by Iranian ambassador praising Hezbollah’s slain leader
SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned the Iranian ambassador’s comments praising a recently slain Hezbollah leader, but rejected opposition advice to expel the envoy.
Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi described Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli missile strike in September in Lebanon, as a “remarkable leader” on social media.
“The government condemns any support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah. We condemn the ambassador’s comments,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
“Australia has maintained a relationship with Iran since 1968 that has been continuous. Not because we agree with the regime, but because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” Albanese added.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who could become prime minister at elections due by May, called for Sadeghi to be expelled over his post. Dutton described Sadeghi’s words as “completely and utterly at odds with what is in our country’s best interests.”
Sadeghi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Australia officially rebuked Sadeghi in August for endorsing Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin’s hope that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027.”