Israel’s latest attack on Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut has cut off a key crossing with Syria, as tens of thousands of people look to escape the growing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the overnight strike early Friday was the military’s effort “to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Lebanese territories, IAF fighter jets, directed by the IDF Intelligence Directorate, struck an underground tunnel crossing from the Lebanese border into Syria.”
The IDF noted that the targeted tunnel allowed the Lebanese militant group to transfer and store “large quantities of weapons underground.” Israel has also claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours, The Associated Press reported.
The attack alongside the Lebanon-Syria border forced the closure of a road near the Masnaa Border Crossing, according to the AP.
The Israeli military also said Friday that they killed the commander of the 4400 Unit, Mohammed Jaafar Katzir.
The attack, which was condemned by Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comes as Israel began limited ground incursions into Lebanon on earlier this week. The operation came after heavy airstrikes in the region.
Those strikes, which have killed more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and a bevy of other top officials, and recent deadly pager and hand-held radio attacks in Lebanon have raised fears that a wider war is inevitable.
Hezbollah and Israel have clashed on the Lebanese border since the militant group has supported Hamas, a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, as war in the region nears its one-year anniversary. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are U.S.-designated terrorist organizations that have served as proxies for Tehran.
Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles toward Israel Tuesday, which U.S. officials have deemed a “significant escalation.” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a rare public address Friday, defending the country’s strikes on Israel, calling them “correct, logical, and lawful.”
The latest attack in Beirut also comes after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon earlier this week.