The Masnaa Border Crossing is an international

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

crossing between the countries of Lebanon and Syria. It is completely land-based and links the customs checkpoints of Masnaa,

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and

Jdeidat Yabous Jdeidat Yabous (; also spelled Jdeidet Yabous), previously known as Ainkania, is a village situated west of Damascus, Syria. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (Syria), Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population o ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. An 8 km no man's land of desolate

neutral territory Border control comprises measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it als ...

buffers the distance between the border stations. It is the primary crossing point between the countries, linking the capital cities of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

and

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Recent history

The border has been closed many times in its history and has been an ongoing subject of controversy, mostly due to its minor role in

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern hostilities. On April 29, 2010, a US security delegation visited the crossing, causing concern from the Lebanese Government and

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

militants operating out of Lebanon. During the 2023 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli airstrikes cut the road to the border crossing. The depth of the impact crater strongly hints the existence of an illegal underground tunnel underneath the civilian crossing. An

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

spokesman accused Hezbollah of transporting military equipment into Lebanon through the crossing. This airstrike came after roughly 300,000 people, mostly Syrians, had fled from Lebanon into Syria through this crossing, fleeing Israeli bombardment. The strike rendered the road impassable to cars, though it was still traversable on foot.

References

{{Syria border crossings Lebanon–Syria border crossings