Israel targets Hezbollah on Syrian and Lebanese fronts
Hezbollah confirms the death of three of its members in Syria in an Israeli drone strike
A Syrian and three members of the Lebanese Hezbollah were killed on Friday as an Israeli drone targeted their car in southern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Simultaneously, three Lebanese soldiers sustained minor injuries due to Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon, according to a medical source. Meanwhile, the army announced a second Israeli attack on a military hospital without casualties.
The observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, stated, “A Syrian and three Hezbollah members of Lebanese nationality, from the surveillance and missile-launching unit, were killed by the targeting of an Israeli drone of a taxi they were traveling in the city of al-Baath” in the Quneitra province.
Earlier, the observatory had mentioned that the four killed were “loyal to Hezbollah” before later confirming their nationalities. Hezbollah later confirmed on Friday the death of three of its members without delving into details.
Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the outbreak of the war in 2011, mainly targeting factions supported by Iran and elements of Hezbollah, in addition to Syrian army positions. However, it has intensified these attacks since the beginning of its war with Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7.
The observatory reported on Thursday night that Israel “fired eight missiles at sites in the southwestern Rif Dimashq province and a military site for regime forces in the east of the town of Hadar in Quneitra, without information on human losses,” noting that this was in response to “the occupied Syrian Golan being shelled.”
Last week, the observatory reported the killing of two officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and fighters loyal to Hezbollah in Israeli raids targeting Hezbollah positions near Damascus, less than 24 hours after the end of a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas.
Israel rarely confirms strikes in Syria but repeats its determination to counter what it describes as Iran’s attempts to establish its military presence in the country.
In another development, a Lebanese medical source said, “The vicinity of the Lebanese army site in the Ras al-Naqoura coastal area in southern Lebanon, at the border between Lebanon and Israel, was subjected to Israeli shelling with artillery shells, and information indicated that three soldiers were lightly injured.”
Lebanese soldiers were seen lying on stretchers, appearing to have difficulty breathing, but no open wounds were visible.
This comes two days after the killing of two people, one of them a soldier, marking the first victim from the Lebanese army since the near-daily exchange of gunfire on the border between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement following the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli army acknowledged carrying out the shelling and expressed “regret,” saying it was targeting a Hezbollah site, not the army.
The Lebanese army said in a statement on Friday that “on December 8, 2023, the army’s hospital in the town of Ain Ibil – the south was shelled by the Israeli enemy, causing material damage without casualties.”
Regular cross-border gunfire erupted following the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, with Hezbollah announcing responsibility on Friday for a series of attacks against Israeli forces and sites near the border. At the same time, Israel announced the continuation of its shelling of border areas and targeting the infrastructure of the party.
The violence on the border has resulted in the death of at least 120 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, as well as 16 civilians, including three journalists.
On Thursday, a civilian in northern Israel was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from southern Lebanon, bringing the number of fatalities in attacks from Lebanese territory to at least six Israeli soldiers and four civilians, according to authorities.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching the missile on Thursday, saying it targeted Israeli military sites. On the same day, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine announced the death of two of its members, bringing the total number of its members killed since the escalation began in southern Lebanon to eight.
