Israeli airstrikes on the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria on October 4, 2024, are impeding civilians trying to flee and disrupting humanitarian operations, Human Rights Watch said today. The situation places civilians at grave risk.

The Israeli military released a statement on October 4 indicating that the Masnaa border crossing was attacked because Hezbollah was using it to transfer weapons. An Israeli attack on a legitimate military target may still be unlawful if it can be expected to cause immediate civilian harm disproportionate to the anticipated military gain. If Hezbollah forces were using the crossing to transfer weapons, they also may be failing to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control.

“By making a border crossing inaccessible at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing fighting and many others are in need of aid, the Israeli military threatens considerable civilian harm,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Even if that crossing is used for military purposes, Israel would need to take into account the expected civilian harm compared to the anticipated military gain from the attack.”

On October 2, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), citing national authorities, reported that approximately 177,000 Syrians and 63,000 Lebanese nationals had entered Syria from Lebanon over the land borders to escape the fighting. Before it was attacked, the crossing was also being used to deliver humanitarian assistance to Lebanon.

The Israeli strikes cut off the main highway between Lebanon and Syria, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that the border crossing, which has been the main route for civilians fleeing Lebanon into Syria, closed after the attack. Reports on October 4 indicated that some people were still crossing on foot, helping each other carry young children and luggage as they made their way around craters on the road.

In statements to the media on October 4, Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said that the strike, inside Lebanese territory, made the road that civilians were using to flee the country inaccessible. Aid workers told the BBC that the destruction of the road was also obstructing the delivery of food and humanitarian supplies.

“The volatile security situation and ongoing Israeli airstrikes are disrupting and delaying relief supplies,” said Rula Amin, a UNHCR spokesperson, during a media briefing in Geneva on the morning of October 4. She said that an airlift carrying medical trauma kits and a shipment from Amman containing over 20,000 thermal blankets have both been held up.

Human Rights Watch geolocated and analyzed videos and photos of the strike site published on social media showing three craters cutting across all three lanes of the Beirut-Damascus highway, about 500 meters east of the Masnaa crossing point inside Lebanese territory, and five kilometers from the Syrian border.

On October 3, the Israeli military Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, alleged that Hezbollah was transporting weapons into Lebanon from Syria through the Masnaa border crossing. He said that the Lebanese government should inspect trucks entering Lebanon and deny entry to those carrying weaponry. He also referred to Israeli strikes the week before on other border crossings that he alleged Hezbollah was using.

On September 26, the Israeli military also struck a bridge at the Matraba border crossing connecting Lebanon to Syria, alleging that Hezbollah was using the crossing to transport weapons. In statements to the media, the director of the crossing said that the strike injured eight border personnel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the following day that the Israeli military conducted a second strike on the crossing, injuring four Syrian Military Intelligence members and leaving the crossing inoperable.

Following the publication of the Israeli military’s allegations, Hamieh, the Lebanese transport minister, said that the government monitored all border crossings.

UNCHR said that the other four official border crossings between Lebanon and Syria – al Arida, Joussieh, Daboussieh, and Jesr Al Qmar – remain open.

In an October 3 statement posted to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account, the Israeli military spokesperson also said that four days earlier, Israeli airstrikes struck a truck carrying weapons that Hezbollah was trying to bring into Lebanon, without identifying where the truck was struck.

The attacks come following a September 28 Israeli media report that the Israeli military had decided to impose a military closure on Lebanon and that Israel had attacked bulldozers attempting to repair crossings.

Human Rights Watch has not verified whether and to what extent Hezbollah has used the Masnaa border crossing or other border crossings for military purposes.

However, attacks on civilian objects, such as roads or border crossings, are still subject to the rules of proportionality even when they become military objectives: that is, when they are making an effective contribution to military action.

Disproportionate attacks include those that may be expected to cause excessive damage to civilians and civilian objects in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack. These attacks are prohibited under the laws of war and Israeli forces should verify in undertaking attacks at all times that the risks to the civilian population do not outweigh the anticipated military advantage.

The laws of war do not prohibit sieges or blockades of enemy forces, but they may not include deliberately preventing civilians’ access to items essential for their survival, such as water, food, and medicine. Parties to the conflict are prohibited from blocking or impeding the evacuation of civilians wishing to flee, except for specific reasons of security or imperative military reasons.

The UN should urgently establish, and UN member countries should support, an international investigation into the hostilities in Lebanon and Israel. The UN and member countries should ensure that investigators are dispatched immediately to gather information and make findings as to violations of international law by the warring parties and recommendations for accountability.

In April, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers instructed the Lebanese Foreign Affairs Ministry to file a declaration with the International Criminal Court (ICC) registrar accepting the court’s jurisdiction over serious crimes committed on Lebanese territory since October 7, 2023.

However, the ministry never followed through, and the government eventually reversed its decision. Accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction through a declaration would give the court’s prosecutor a mandate to investigate serious crimes committed in Lebanon, regardless of the nationality of the suspects. Lebanon should urgently give the ICC jurisdiction to enable the court’s prosecutor to investigate grave international crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

Israel’s key allies should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel, given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses, Human Rights Watch said. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have blocked civilians from fleeing the Gaza Strip as well as the entry of urgently needed relief supplies, flouting orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and imposing a siege that amounts to collective punishment and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

Governments, including the United States, should ensure that preventing atrocities by all parties is at the center of their response to the hostilities. US President Joe Biden committed early in his tenure to conduct atrocity risk assessments in situations like these and is required to report to Congress on these efforts. The US government should seriously examine the warning signs in Lebanon and mobilize other partners to do so.

“Amid Israeli military attacks in populated civilian areas across Lebanon that have killed over 1,400 people in a matter of weeks, civilians are desperately trying to reach safety by crossing into Syria,” Fakih said. “Israel’s allies risk complicity in unlawful attacks if they continue providing arms and other substantive support despite the obvious risk of atrocities.”