The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that more than 30,000 people, mostly Syrians, crossed into Syria from Lebanon in the past 72 hours.

The number of arrivals in Syria is increasing amid escalating Israeli bombardments targeting Hezbollah headquarters and residential neighborhoods.

The UNHCR representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, said today, Friday, September 27, that about 80% of these crossers are Syrians and 20% are Lebanese.

Half of the displaced are children and teenagers, while men are crossing in fewer numbers than women, according to what the UN official told Reuters.

Llosa added in a press conference, “They are crossing from a country at war into a country that has been in conflict and crisis for 13 years, which is an extremely difficult choice.”

The UN official said that the UNHCR will need to see in the coming days how many people will cross the border towards Syria.

The Deputy Governor of Rif Dimashq, Jassem al-Mahmoud, told the local Sham FM radio that the number of arrivals through the Jdeidet Yabous crossing, from last Tuesday until mid-Thursday, reached 42,000 people, including 31,000 Syrians and 11,000 Lebanese.

Lebanese refugees were distributed to shelters prepared by the governorate in three hotels in the Sayyidah Zaynab area, and in the Harjalah, al-Dweir, Yabroud, Nabek, and Daraya shelters.

Al-Mahmoud added that the governorate is working on providing all services to those in the centers.

The Director of Civil Defense in Homs, Brigadier General Muhaddab al-Moudi, told the local Al-Watan newspaper that there are five main shelters in the governorate that can accommodate about 40,000 people, and nine secondary shelters that can accommodate about 25,000 people.

On September 25, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that thousands of Lebanese and Syrians are fleeing from Lebanon to Syria amid ongoing Israeli bombardment.

The UNHCR added that large crowds, including women and children, are gathering in lines after spending the night in the open air in low temperatures, some of them suffering from recent injuries due to Israeli bombardment in Lebanon.

Syrian regime’s President Bashar al-Assad previously commented, in his first reaction to the Israeli escalation in Lebanon, during his chairing of a directive meeting for the new government after it was sworn in.

Al-Assad said, on Tuesday, September 24, addressing the ministers, “Fate and circumstances willed that you start your work today under the fierce attack of the Zionists on our brothers in Lebanon (…) But with the first hours of your work, the main title before all other titles should be how we can stand with our brothers in Lebanon in all fields and all sectors without exception and without hesitation.”