ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s migration and displacement ministry on Tuesday updated the number of Lebanese refugees that have arrived in the country to 13,000, as Israel ramps up its strikes against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. “The number of Lebanese guests who arrived in Iraq exceeds 13,000,” Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq’s migration and displacement ministry, told Rudaw. Iraq officially labels Lebanese citizens fleeing the conflict as “guests of Iraq,” and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani earlier this month approved the allocation of 3 billion dinars (about $2.27 million) to the migration ministry to assist the Lebanese refugees. The al-Qaim border crossing between Iraq’s Anbar province and Syria “witnesses the entry of about five to ten buses carrying Lebanese people daily,” according to Abbas. Around 8,000 of the Lebanese refugees who have arrived in Iraq are staying in Karbala, Abbas detailed. The Lebanese refugees also have been settled in the provinces of Baghdad, Najaf, and Salahaddin, the migration ministry has said previously. Iraq has also sent several rounds of aid to Lebanon; the Iraqi Red Crescent Society said earlier in October that 150 tons of food supplies and aid have been dispatched to the country since the conflict began. Israel turned to its northern neighbor Lebanon after nearly a year of war in the Gaza Strip, to remove pro-Iran Hezbollah fighters from southern Lebanon and allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from the north by the Lebanese group’s constant rocket and drone strikes to return safely to their homes. Since the start of the conflict, Israeli bombardments have killed 2,464 people and injured 11,530 others in Lebanon, according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry last week. Nearly a quarter of the population, 1.2 million people, have been displaced, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said earlier this month. Mushtaq Ramadhan contributed to this report.
