BEIRUT: A war monitor said Israeli air strikes on Friday on Syria's north killed 36 soldiers and six Hizbullah fighters, the latest deadly raid on forces in the country since the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war there broke out in 2011, targeting army positions as well as Hizbullah.
The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Hamas began on October 7, and Friday's was the second such attack in 24 hours. "Israeli strikes" targeted "a rockets depot belonging to Lebanon's Hizbullah" close to Aleppo airport, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
It reported "42 killed, including six from Lebanon's Hizbullah group" and "36 soldiers", the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began. State news agency SANA, quoting a military source, reported that "at approximately 1:45 am, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo", adding that "civilians and military personnel" were killed and wounded.
Contacted from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it would "not comment on reports in the foreign media".
The Observatory also reported strikes targeting "defence factories" controlled by pro-Iran groups elsewhere in Aleppo province. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the strikes were a "violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and are a serious threat to regional and international peace and security". He called the attacks "a blatant and desperate attempt to continue and expand the crisis in the region".
The attack came just hours after a reported Israeli strike in the Damascus countryside. Syrian state media said "two civilians" were killed in an "Israeli air attack that targeted a residential building" on Thursday, also reporting material damage.
The Observatory said the Sayyida Zeinab area, a stronghold of groups including Hizbullah south of the capital, was targeted. Israeli raids in Syria also seek to cut off Hizbullah supply routes to neighbouring Lebanon. The Israel-Hamas war began with the Gaza-based Palestinian fighters' unprecedented attacks that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,623 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there. Israel has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Hizbullah in Lebanon since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a major regional conflagration. A military security source said an Israeli strike on Friday on a car in south Lebanon killed a Hizbullah official, while the group claimed attacks on an Israeli position.
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