This is the latest buzz from the Syrian-Lebanese border. Things got pretty intense today with some explosive developments. The word on the street is that Lebanon decided to close a bunch of land crossings with Syria. This sudden move is reportedly to keep folks safe from what they described as repeated Israeli strikes on these crossings.
Now, amidst all this, one border point managed to stay open. Yep, the al-Masnaa border crossing isn’t shutting its gates just yet. On the Syrian side, it matches up with Jdaidet Yabous, and this crossing remains operational to let people, especially Syrian nationals, come and go under some special temporary rules.
Early this morning, Ali Hamieh, Lebanon’s Minister of Transport, spilled the beans about some Israeli strikes that hit two Syrian border crossings. Turns out, this isn’t a rumor. The Israeli army actually owned up to targeting spots around the Syrian-Lebanese border.
It was Avichai Adraee, the Israeli army spokesman, who dropped the deets. He posted on “X” (formerly known as Twitter) that Israeli warplanes took out some equipment and structures on the border. They say it all kicked off when Hezbollah tried to smuggle stuff from the Syrian side into Lebanon.
According to Adraee, one of these airstrikes slammed the al-Arida crossing near Tartus. And guess what? They also went for Unit 4400, apparently the team responsible for moving Hezbollah’s gear into Lebanon.
While the Syrian Ministry of Defense hasn’t chimed in with their side of the story yet, the local media is buzzing with reports. The official Syrian news agency, SANA, confirmed that the al-Arida crossing was knocked out again because of the bombing—seems like deja vu, huh?
The local Al-Watan newspaper jumped into the conversation too, saying that the Israeli aircraft didn’t just target al-Arida but also took shots at the Jousieh crossing. These are just more pieces in this puzzling border saga.
Al-Arida had its share of action before; it got hit by Israeli forces back on November 27, which put it out of business for a while. Just when Lebanese displaced persons began using it again, here we are—back to square one.
It’s not like this is the first time something like this has happened. In fact, just at the end of November, the Israeli army launched strikes near the Syrian-Lebanese border close to al-Qusayr. Back then, these spats were frequent, but things cooled down a bit after a ceasefire was called on November 27.
The borders here have been quite the hotspot over the years. There are illegal crossings too, often used for smuggling everything from goods to people, weapons, and even those infamous Captagon pills. Obviously, the six legal crossings are also involved in trade and helping people move across in more straightforward ways.
That’s all for now—just another day with rising tensions in this part of the world. We’ll keep our ears to the ground for more updates, so stay tuned.
