Israel attacks north Lebanon crossings with Syria for first time, minister says

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israel late on Tuesday attacked Lebanon's three northern border crossings with Syria for the first time, Lebanon's transport minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

The strikes took place after U.S. President Joe Biden announced that a ceasefire would come into effect at 4:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) on Wednesday to halt hostilities between Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel.

The Israeli military said its warplanes attacked several transport hubs between Syria and Lebanon that were used to send combat equipment to Hezbollah.

Hamieh said it was not immediately clear whether the border crossings had been cut off as a result of the strikes. Israeli raids on Lebanon's eastern crossings in recent weeks had already sealed off those routes into Syria.

Syria's state news agency reported four civilians and two soldiers were killed, and 12 people were wounded, including children, women and workers of the Syrian Red Crescent in the countryside of Homs province.

The Red Crescent said earlier a volunteer was killed and another was injured in "the aggression that targeted Al-Dabousieh and Al-Arida crossings ... as they were performing their humanitarian duty of rescuing the wounded early on Wednesday."

The strike damaged several ambulances and work points, it added in a statement.

Syrian state TV reported the Israeli strike hit the Arida and Dabousieh border crossings with Lebanon.

Separately, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Tuesday that it struck an Iranian-aligned militia weapons storage facility in Syria in response to an Iranian-aligned attack against U.S. forces in the country on Monday.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Adam Makary, Jaidaa Taha, Enas Alashray and Clauda Tanios; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Lincoln Feast, William Maclean)