100,000 have fled Lebanon for Syria amid Israeli strikes

Some 100,000 Lebanese and Syrian nationals have now fled to Syria from Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes, the United Nations refugee chief said Monday.

"The number of people who have crossed into Syria from Lebanon fleeing Israeli airstrikes -- Lebanese and Syrian nationals -- has reached 100,000," Filippo Grandi said on X, adding that "the outflow continues".

More than 5,000 displaced people found shelter in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.

The overcrowded suburb called Sayyida Zeinab has welcomed the displaced, offering them hotel rooms and other accommodation. The Shiite militant Hezbollah group, which fought alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s civil war, maintains a strong presence in the predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb.

The cross-border flow was a striking reversal in fortunes given that Lebanon is still hosting more than one million Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country that began in 2011.

"The situation in Lebanon is tragic," said Foutoun Abbas, a displaced Lebanese woman from the eastern city of Baalbek that has been at the receiving end of heavy Israeli bombardment the past few days. "It was by the mercy of God that we got here," she said, adding the road was very dangerous.