Fear, tension in Lebanon under deadly Israeli air raids

BEIRUT, Sept 24 (BBC/AFP): Across southern Lebanon, families scrambled together belongings and headed north in cars and trucks and on motorcycles as the Israeli military struck targets it said were linked to the Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah.
Some residents reported receiving warnings in the form of text messages and voice recordings from the Israeli military to leave areas near the Iran-backed group's positions.
Zahra Sawli, a student in the southern town of Nabatieh told the BBC's Newshour programme the bombardment was intense.
"I woke up at 6am to the sound of bombing. By noon it started to get really intense and I saw a lot of strikes in my area." "I heard a lot of glass shattering."
Unlike many, she and those she was with did not leave the house - they didn't dare, she said.
"Where are we supposed to go? A lot of people are still stuck on the streets. A lot of my friends are still stuck in traffic because a lot of people are trying to flee," she said.
By the middle of the day roads north towards Beirut were clogged with traffic, with vehicles heading towards the capital on both sides of a six-lane coastal highway.
Other images showed people walking along the beach in the southern city of Tyre as smoke rose from air strikes in the countryside inland.
The BBC spoke to one family of five who had arrived in Beirut on a single motorbike. From a village in the south, they were heading to Tripoli in the north. They were exhausted.
"What do you want us to say? We just had to flee," the father said.
By Monday evening the Lebanese health ministry reported that 492 people had been killed and more than 1,600 injured in the bombardment. It said at least 35 children were among those killed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out 1,100 strikes over the previous 24 hours.
That included an air strike in southern Beirut that the IDF said had targeted a senior Hezbollah commander.
In Beirut too there was widespread anxiety. As people from the south arrived in the capital in cars with suitcases strapped to the top, some of the city's residents were themselves leaving.
Israel has warned people to evacuate areas where it says Hezbollah is storing weapons - but it also sent recorded warnings to people in Beirut districts not considered Hezbollah strongholds including Hamra, an area home to government ministries, banks and universities.
Parents rushed to pick up their children from school after receiving more warnings to leave the area. One father, Issa, took his son out of school, telling Reuters news agency: "[We're here] because of the phone calls.
Hundreds cross into
Syria from Lebanon
Some 500 people have crossed from Lebanon to war-torn Syria, a Syrian security official told AFP Tuesday, fleeing the deadliest Israeli bombardment since Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.
"Around 500 people crossed the border through the Qusayr and Dabousiya crossings between 4 pm (1300 GMT) and midnight" Monday, the security official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
"Vehicles were still crossing in the early hours of the morning, with people heading towards friends' and acquaintances' homes in the Homs countryside and in the city of Homs," he said.
Lebanon's Hezbollah group has fought alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war and wields influence on both sides of the border.