Two pro-Hezbollah Syrian fighters were killed on Saturday in Israeli strikes against sites of the Lebanese armed movement, which is allied with the Palestinian movement Hamas, near Damascus, the Syrian capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. “Human” (OSDH).
“Two Syrian fighters working for Hezbollah were killed and seven others […] “People were injured in Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah sites near Sayyida Zeinab,” said Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of OSDH, an NGO that has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in neighboring Syria since the civil war there began in 2011, targeting Syrian army positions and Iran-linked groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
These attacks have increased since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, sparked by a bloody attack by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
The OSDH director previously told AFP that Israel had attacked “Hezbollah targets” in the Sayyida Zeinab region, south of Damascus.
The Syrian Defense Ministry also said Israel had struck near the Syrian capital, and an AFP journalist in Damascus reported the sound of bombs.
“Around 1:35 a.m. (10:35 p.m. GMT) [samedi]“The Israeli enemy carried out an air strike from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting specific points near the city of Damascus,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement, without reporting casualties.
Syrian state television reported “Israeli aggression near the capital.”
When asked by AFP about these attacks, the Israeli army did not immediately respond.
On November 8, three pro-Iranian fighters were killed in Israeli strikes against Lebanese Hezbollah positions.
On November 26, Damascus airport was again targeted by Israeli airstrikes, rendering it inoperable a few hours after resuming flights that had previously been suspended following similar attacks in October.
Israel rarely comments on its operations in Syria but says it wants to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from establishing itself on its doorstep.