UNHCR: Israeli Attack Forced 430 Thousand Exoduses From Lebanon To Syria

Residents in Lebanon to Syria/LET UNHCR/Houssam Hariri

JAKARTA - More than 430,000 people have left Lebanon for Syria since the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict increased. Most of them are Syrian refugees, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.

"A fifth of the [Lebanon] population has fled. And 430,000 people have crossed into Syria 30 percent of Lebanese, 70 percent of Syrian citizens: people who fled the war and are now fleeing another war," UNHCR quoted UNHCR Head Filippo Grandi as saying by ANTARA from Lebanon, Friday, October 25.

Speaking at a conference on Lebanon held in Paris on Thursday, Gandi called for "a ceasefire, followed by political and military agreements that make it sustainable."

"There is no alternative," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

On October 1, Israel launched a ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to continue the retaliation for airstrikes and rockets that have been going on since the escalating armed conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The death toll in Lebanon as a result of the Israeli attack has surpassed 2,000 people.

The United Nations says UNIFIL peacekeeping forces in Lebanon have been repeatedly attacked by Israel during Israel-Hezbollah hostilities.

Israel argued that the main purpose of its attack was to create conditions for the repatriation of 60,000 of its population to the country's northern region which is close to the border.