Israeli military sources on Friday confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces had conducted an overnight airstrike on Lebanon’s main border crossing with Syria, after identifying an attempted delivery of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah via the civilian crossing.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, a Hezbollah member, told Reuters the strike had created a four-meter (12-foot) crater next to the Masnaa Border Crossing, sealing off Lebanon’s main route to Syria.
The Lebanese government said that some 310,000 people — mostly Syrians — have used the road to flee to Syria in the past ten days, amid the escalation in fighting.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF Arabic spokesperson, on Thursday accused Hezbollah of using the border crossing to smuggle Iranian arms into Lebanon.
“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so,” he wrote on X.
Hamieh responded to the Israeli allegations at a press conference on Thursday, saying the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state and was being secured “in accordance with international law.”
The border crossing strike came hours after a massive Israeli airstrike on Beirut — said to have targeted Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor to longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah — at the terror group’s intelligence headquarters.
The strikes came as the IDF broadened its ground operation in south Lebanon on Thursday and Hezbollah fired over 240 rockets into northern Israel.
The heavy rocket fire into northern Israel continued Friday.
The past two weeks have seen Israel step up its strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, all but decimating the terror group’s top command in a series of massive airstrikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon.
The escalation followed Israel’s decision last month to make the return home of northern residents an official war aim. Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, out of fear Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, and — excluding the soldiers killed in the ground operation — the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF has announced the deaths of nine soldiers in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The military has described the operations as “limited, localized and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area. Officials have said that the military intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible.
Since Israel escalated its airstrikes on the Hezbollah terror group on Monday, more than 630 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
At least a quarter of those killed have been women and children, according to Lebanese health officials. More than 2,000 were wounded. Israel has said that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.