Over 30,000 crossed into Syria from Lebanon in 72 hours, says UN

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BERLIN (Reuters) -More than 30,000 people, mainly Syrians, crossed into Syria from Lebanon in the past 72 hours, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah intensified.

About 80% of the people making the crossing were Syrians and about 20% were Lebanese, said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the UNHCR’s representative in Syria.

About half were children and adolescents, and men were making the crossing in smaller numbers than women, he said.

“They are crossing from a country at war to one that has faced a crisis conflict for 13 years,” Vargas Llosa told a Geneva press conference, calling it an extremely difficult choice. “We will have to see over the next few days how many more do so.”

He said the UNHCR had been working with Syria’s government and partners to beef up the reception and processing of those who arrive, and that Syria was allowing Lebanese nationals to enter for an unspecified time as long as they had some kind of papers showing their name.

Lebanon is home to around 1.5 million Syrians who fled civil war in their own country.

Israel’s foreign minister has rejected global calls for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and pressed on with airstrikes that this week have heightened fears of a regional war.

The conflict between Israeli forces and the heavily armed Hezbollah is their worst in more than 18 years and part of the regional spillover of the Gaza war.

In total, more than 200,000 people in Lebanon have been uprooted by the conflict, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon told the press conference.

(Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Friederike Heine and Timothy Heritage)