LONDON: Thousands of refugees living in Lebanon have returned to their native Syria since Saturday, as Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon intensify amid tensions over the US-Israeli conflict against Iran, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Raed Al-Saleh, Syria’s disaster management and emergency response minister, said the Jousieh border crossing between Qaa in Lebanon and Qusair in Syria’s Homs province has become a busy entry point as growing numbers of Syrians return.

Elsewhere, Syrian Civil Defense teams, working under the Emergency and Disaster Management Ministry, implemented a humanitarian-response plan at the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing between rural Damascus and Masnaa as large numbers of people arrived from Lebanon.

Authorities said that traffic between Syria and Lebanon was flowing without disruptions, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Israel has attacked several targets in Lebanon, including Beirut, after a missile fired from southern Lebanon hit northern Israel on Monday.

Currently, 532,357 Syrian refugees are registered with the UN Human Rights Council. However, the Lebanese government estimates the true number who fled the civil war in Syria, which began in 2011 and ended with the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, is about 1.12 million.