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Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah read more
 "Israeli military strike in Syria-Lebanon border kills 'significant' Palestinian operative")
Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh near the border with Israel. AFP
The Israeli military said Wednesday it killed a “significant” Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area, while a monitor of Syria’s conflict reported four dead in the incident.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement that three of its fighters “from the Syrian arena” were killed, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah issued a statement saying a fighter was killed, without specifying where.
The Israeli air force “struck and eliminated… a significant terrorist in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation’s operations division, in the area of the Syrian-Lebanese border,” an Israeli military statement said.
The operative was “responsible for the development of the Islamic Jihad’s operational plans in Syria and Lebanon”, the statement said, adding he had played “a central role” in recruiting Palestinians for Hezbollah, which is also an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“Additional Islamic Jihad terrorists who were on their way from Syria to carry out terrorist activities” in Lebanon for Hezbollah were also “eliminated” in the strike, the statement said.
Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the country’s civil conflict, said four people were killed in the incident.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said the attack occurred Wednesday morning “near a Syrian regime checkpoint on the Damascus-Beirut road” as it was heading towards Lebanon.
Syrian state media have yet to report the incident.
The Israeli military statement said that Hezbollah “has been systematically recruiting Palestinian operatives to advance and direct terrorist activity” against Israel from Lebanon.
Strikes claimed by or blamed on Israel have targeted vehicles in the Syria-Lebanese border area several times since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
A Lebanese security source had said an overnight Israeli air strike hit a lorry loaded with Hezbollah missiles in eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border.
The Israeli military did not claim the strike.
Hezbollah has a strong presence in east Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, which borders Syria, and in south Lebanon, where it has been launching near daily attacks on Israeli positions since October in support of ally Hamas.
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English (US) ·