Israel attacks Syria
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247 Israel is carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly attacks in Syria, targeting trucks, infrastructure and people involved in supplying weapons from Iran to its proxies in the region, six sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Portal.
Although Israel has been attacking Iranlinked targets in Syria for years, including areas where the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been active, it is now launching deadlier and more frequent airstrikes against Iranian arms transfers and air defense systems in Syria, sources said.
The regional alliance commander and two other sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking said Israel had abandoned the unspoken “rules of the game” that had previously shaped its attacks in Syria and appeared to be “no longer cautious” about inflicting heavy losses on Hezbollah this country.
“They used to fire warning shots they hit near the truck, our men got out of the truck and then hit the truck,” the commander said, describing Israeli attacks on arms transfers carried out by Hezbollah before October 7 .
CONTINUED AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS
“It’s over now. Israel is now launching deadlier and more frequent airstrikes against Iranian arms transfers and air defense systems in Syria. They bombard everyone directly. They bomb to kill.”
The steppedup airstrike has killed 19 Hezbollah members in Syria in three months more than double the number killed in the rest of 2023 combined, according to a Portal tally. During the same period, more than 130 Hezbollah fighters were also killed by Israeli bombing from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military did not respond to Portal' questions about the escalation of its campaign. A senior Israeli official, speaking to journalists on condition of anonymity, said that Hezbollah began this round of fighting with attacks on October 8 and that Israel's strategy was aimed at retaliation.
Israel began attacking Iranlinked targets in Syria years ago, but sources familiar with the strikes said it appeared to avoid killing Hezbollah members as much as possible.
A regional intelligence official said Israel feared a high number of casualties would provoke retaliation by Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israeli villages across the border.
But with exchanges of fire now occurring daily following the Oct. 7 attack, Israel is prepared to be “less cautious and less restrained in the slaughter of Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria,” the official added.
In a televised address on January 5, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had lost “a number of fighters in Israeli bombings in Syria in several locations over the past three months.”
“We had a formula before the AlAqsa storming operation: if they killed one of our brothers in Syria, we would respond on the Lebanese front which was calm. In practice, the conditions of this formula have changed why? Because the entire front is now lit up,” he said.
An Israeli drone strike on December 8 killed three Hezbollah fighters who were planning possible operations in northern Israel, and another attack in Quneitra in southern Syria targeted two Hezbollah fighters responsible for the arms transfer, the commander of the pro said Syrian alliance.
Four more people were killed in late December in an attack on buildings and trucks used by Iranaligned militia groups along Syria's eastern border with Iraq.
The attacks also targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria. One killed two Guard members in early December and another killed a senior Guard adviser who oversaw military coordination between Syria and Iran on December 25.
“He would never have been killed before the new postOctober 7 reality came into effect,” said a source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking and operations in Syria.