After deadliest-in-decades airstrike in West Bank, Israel pounds Lebanon-Syria border crossing

As the ongoing Middle East crisis continues to escalate, Israel unleashed a plethora of airstrikes in Lebanon, the West Bank and even near the Lebanon-Syria border. On Friday, the Lebanese authority stated that Israel conducted airstrikes near the Syrian border.

According to AFP, the recent Israeli strikes were conducted near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria. Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh said that the Israeli authority struck the Lebanese side of the border, cutting off a road used by Lebanese fleeing to Syria.

The confirmation from the Lebanese authority came a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military spokesman accused Lebanese terror group Hezbollah of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon. “The IDF 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,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Israel pounds West Bank, kills 18 

On Thursday evening, Israel conducted airstrikes in Tulkarm, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. According to the Palestinian Health Authority, at least 18 people were killed in the attack. Shortly after the strikes, the Israeli military said that the strikes were aimed at the local head of Hamas and his associates.

In an updated statement over the matter, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that the strikes had killed the head of Hamas in Tulkarm, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, “alongside additional terrorists.” The Israeli authorities noted that Oufi had planned and led multiple “significant” shooting attacks and car bombings on Israeli civilians in the West Bank and had supplied weapons to other operatives who also carried out attacks on Israelis.

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It is pertinent to note that Tulkarm was the focus of the Israeli military raids in the West Bank, which have already led to the destruction of the city’s infrastructure and businesses. Suleiman Zuhairi, a former Palestinian deputy minister who lives on the outskirts of Tulkarm, emphasised that Israel had not carried out such a bombardment in the West Bank for years, if not decades.

“The blast was terrifying,” he said. “My house trembled from the shock wave,” he continued, though it was a distance from the reported blast site," the Palestinian official furthered.

With inputs from agencies.