Israeli strike cuts off key road used by thousands to flee Lebanon to Syria

An Israeli strike on Friday morning near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater.

An Israeli military spokesman had accused Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.

"The IDF [Israeli army] will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," the military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Hamieh had said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state.

According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people - a vast majority of them Syrian - had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.