As the war in Gaza rages, Israel continues its campaign against Syrian and Hezbollah military targets, raising fears of regional contagion.
Israel has launched attacks on positions in Syria and Lebanon, as part of its ongoing campaign against opposition armies and armed forces in the Middle East.
“He [Israeli army] “It attacked military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army,” the Israeli military said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“[Israeli military] Fighter jets also attacked Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon,” he added, pledging that he would “continue to operate against any threat to Israel’s sovereignty.”
Israel’s military has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah and has launched repeated airstrikes against Syria since its war in Gaza began on October 7, raising fears that the conflict will spread to the entire region.
In response to yesterday’s launches into Israeli territory, the IDF attacked military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army.
IDF fighter jets also attacked Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon.
The IDF will continue to operate against any threat to Israel… pic.twitter.com/xSty1eyMkb
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 2, 2024
The latest attacks, which occurred between Monday and Tuesday, marked a rise in tensions between Israel and its neighbors it claims have ties to its enemy, Iran.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Syrian state news agency SANA said the pre-dawn Israeli strikes came from the Golan Heights.
The airstrikes targeted “several locations in the Damascus countryside,” SANA reported, citing an unnamed military source who stated that only “material damage” had been caused.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a position under attack near the town of Kanaker was hosting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the AFP news agency reported.
Parts of the southern Lebanese town of Yaroun were also attacked, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, after Hezbollah announced it had fired on Israeli units near the northern Israeli village of Sarit.
Iran Links
Syria and Iran are regional allies, and President Bashar al-Assad received strong support from Tehran during the war in Syria.
Since its formation in 1982, Iran-backed Hezbollah has become a powerful “state within a state” in Lebanon, and has also backed Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Tuesday’s strikes closely follow an airstrike near Aleppo in late December, which caused some property damage, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.
Since the war in Syria began, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syrian territory, against both Syrian and Hezbollah military targets. As the war in Gaza progresses, there has been an increase in cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
In December, an Israeli airstrike outside Damascus killed Razi Moussavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.
Reports from Iran’s INRA news agency said Mousavi had been part of an entourage accompanying IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport when he was killed by a US drone strike almost exactly four years ago.
