dpa
Geneva/Beirut
Since the beginning of Israel’s massive aerial campaign on Lebanon which was launched last week, some 1,000 people have fled the country to neighbouring Syria, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday.
Some 60% of them are believed to be Syrian refugees that previously fled to Lebanon amid the civil war that broke out in their home country in 2011.
Some 40% are estimated to be Lebanese, the Geneva-based agency said.
Following Israeli bombardment of Beirut, which killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday, the number of refugees arriving at the north-western border crossing near the Syrian city of Homs has doubled, according to the UN.
Most people are fleeing across the border crossing some 70 kilometres south-west of Beirut near Damascus, it said.
Many people spent several days waiting at the border crossing, before Syria waived the exchange of $100 “normally required of each Syrian when entering Syria,” the UN said.
That rule has now been lifted for one week, helping to ease the situation, according to the statement.
“UNHCR and its partners continue to scale up assistance for the new arrivals, distributing relief items, food, and water, among others, to those arriving at the border crossings,” it said. Some 60% of those crossing the border are minors, according to the UN. About 1.5 million Syrian refugees were estimated to be living in Lebanon before the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated last week.
