By Esref Musa and Omer Koparan
DAMASCUS, Syria (AA) - Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have triggered a mass migration of thousands of people fleeing into Syria, a country already devastated by years of conflict.
According to local sources, more than 5,000 Lebanese families, including members of Hezbollah and their relatives, have crossed into Syria since the start of Israel’s attacks on Sept. 23.
The displaced families are settling in villages around Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama -- areas heavily bombarded and largely abandoned due to years of fighting under the Assad regime.
Local Hezbollah-affiliated committees in Syria are reportedly helping to shelter the new arrivals. Initially housed in temporary shelters, the families are gradually being relocated to the war-ravaged villages.
- 'We are going to Damascus'
Hüseyin Ali, a Lebanese man escaping the violence, told Anadolu about the worsening conditions in southern Lebanon. "You can’t live in southern Lebanon, the Dahiyeh area, or any regions with Shia anymore. We are constantly under attack as Shia," Ali said. "We are going to Damascus where it is safer for us. We really love Bashar al-Assad."
Another fleeing resident, Muhammet Ferruh, described the intensity of the attacks near his home in southern Lebanon. "No one from my relatives is left in the village. There are attacks around the village every day, and in the early days, there were major assaults on the village center," Ferruh said, adding that 26 people were killed on the first day of strikes.
A young boy, 12-year-old Tac Seyyid from Baalbek, shared his fear of the violence. "The sounds scare me a lot," he said. "The situation in Baalbek was very terrifying. We couldn’t sleep at night. Now, we are going to Damascus."
Israel has pounded Lebanon since early Monday with airstrikes that have killed more than 700 victims and injured nearly 2,200, according to figures released by the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The ministry also said that the death toll in Lebanon since last October is 1,540, in addition to the more than 77,000 displaced from the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Earlier in a statement on Saturday, the Israeli army claimed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “liquidated” during an operation targeting the central command of Hezbollah located beneath a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,600 victims, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.
The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of turning the Gaza conflict into a regional war.
*Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli in Istanbul