Israel renews strikes on Lebanon, forces Syria border crossing to close
Israel has launched attacks against Lebanon since Mar 2 when armed group Hezbollah entered the Middle East war on the side of its backer Iran.
A man inspects the rubble of a building damaged in an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Tyre, Lebanon, on Apr 5, 2026. (Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi)
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israeli strikes on south Beirut and its suburbs killed at least four people on Sunday (Apr 5), a day after Israel threatened to hit Lebanon's main border crossing with Syria, forcing it to close.
The Israeli military also carried out deadly attacks on Lebanon's south, one of which killed seven people including a family of six.
Israel has launched airstrikes across Lebanon as well as a ground invasion in the south since Mar 2, when armed group Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran.
Hezbollah on Sunday claimed to have fired a cruise missile at an Israeli warship off the coast, but the Israeli military told AFP it was "not aware" of such an incident.
One of Israel's strikes in Beirut on Sunday killed at least four people and wounded 39 in the Jnah neighbourhood, the Lebanese health ministry said.
It landed about 100m away from a public hospital, a medical source told AFP.
Another attack struck a building elsewhere in Jnah that the Israeli military had warned it would target.
An AFP photographer in the area saw a missile hit one building as Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude over the capital.
Israel also launched several strikes on the nearby southern suburbs, an area now largely evacuated but where Hezbollah holds sway.
In a statement, the military warned it had "begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites".
VITAL CROSSING
On Saturday, Israel had said it would target the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, the main gateway between the two countries.
"Due to Hezbollah's use of the Masnaa crossing for military purposes and smuggling of combat equipment, the (Israeli army) intends to carry out strikes on the crossing in the near future," said the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, urging people to leave the area.
The border post was quickly evacuated on the Lebanese side and the site was virtually deserted early Sunday, with only a few guards still on duty, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
In Syria, borders and customs public relations director Mazen Aloush insisted that the crossing, known as Jdeidet Yabous on the Syrian side, was "exclusively for civilian use and is not used for any military purposes".
Aloush said traffic through the crossing would be temporarily suspended due to the Israeli threat.
Masnaa is a vital trade route for both countries and a key gateway to the rest of the region for Lebanese people.
Military expert Hassan Jouni told AFP that Israel's threat to strike the crossing "is not based on sound security considerations, but rather aims to pressure the Lebanese government ... to disarm Hezbollah".
Israel previously struck the facility in October 2024, during another war with the militant group.
The gateway then remained closed until Lebanese and Syrian authorities began repair work after a ceasefire the following month.
At another border crossing further north known as Jousieh, an AFP correspondent on Sunday saw a long line of cars and vans waiting to enter Syria as people sought an alternative route.
FAMILY KILLED
Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the start of the war have killed more than 1,400 people, including 126 children, and displaced over a million, according to Lebanese authorities.
In the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Hatta, far from the border with Israel, an Israeli strike killed seven people including a four-year-old girl, the health ministry said Sunday.
The Israeli army had issued an evacuation warning for the town on Saturday evening.
A source from Lebanon's civil defence told AFP that a family of six who had been displaced from a town further south were waiting for a relative to pick them up in a vehicle when they were killed. The relative also perished in the strike.
An AFP photographer saw at least eight homes destroyed by attacks in Kfar Hatta.
As Israeli troops push into border areas in southern Lebanon, destroying villages, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated his call for talks with Israel, saying he wanted to spare his country's south from destruction on the scale seen in Gaza.
"Why don't we negotiate ... until we can at least save the homes that have not yet been destroyed?" he said in a televised address on Sunday.
