Israel carried out strikes on the border between Syria and Lebanon which left seven dead according to an NGO, a few hours before the announcement of a truce in the war against Lebanese Hezbollah which came into force on Wednesday.
Tuesday evening, while discussing the ceasefire in Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was “playing with fire”, citing the arms transfers tolerated by the regime of Damascus for the benefit of Hezbollah, its ally.
The nighttime strikes are the latest in a series of deadly bombings in Syrian territory, with the Israeli army saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in parallel with its war in Lebanon launched on September 23 against the pro-Iranian movement.
These strikes targeted the border posts of Al-Arida – targeted for the first time in the province of Tartus -, that of Daboussiyeh and Jousieh, in the province of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. ‘Man (OSDH).
“Informal crossing points” and three bridges in the central province of Homs were also targeted on the same Syrian-Lebanese border, according to the Observatory which has a vast network of sources across Syria.
An updated report from the OSDH reports seven deaths, including two Syrian soldiers, a child and a Syrian Red Crescent volunteer.
“The Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack from Lebanese territory, targeting border crossings between Syria and Lebanon,” the Syrian Defense Ministry previously indicated, reporting six deaths, including two soldiers.
“Play with fire”
“In Syria, we are systematically blocking any attempt by Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian army to transfer weapons to Lebanon. Assad must understand that he is playing with fire,” the Israeli Prime Minister said on Tuesday evening. .,In recent weeks, the Israeli army has carried out several strikes against crossing points on the border between Lebanon and Syria.
In the Damascus region, it also said in the past it had targeted “command centers” of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian faction committed to Hamas.
On Monday, the Israeli army accused Hezbollah and Iran of having established “secret routes to Lebanon via Syrian territory”, and of having used over the years “thousands of trucks and hundreds planes to smuggle thousands of missiles” and weapons.
Since September 26, shortly after the start of the open war in Lebanon between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the OSDH has recorded 88 Israeli attacks in Syrian territory, according to its director Rami Abdel Rahmane.
“As long as there are arms trucks or movements of Hezbollah or pro-Iranian armed factions, Israel will continue to target them, as was already the case before the start of the war in Lebanon,” he said. he told AFP.
A possible solution: “an unofficial agreement, at the initiative of Russia and certain Arab countries, which would limit the movements and transfers of weapons of Hezbollah in Syrian territory”, underlines Mr. Abdel Rahmane.
He also recalls that since October 2023, and the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, the Syrian regime has “stayed far from the regional conflict”.
On Wednesday, thanks to the truce declared in Lebanon, Beirut and Damascus announced work to allow traffic to resume at the main border crossing between the two countries.
The Lebanese Minister of Transport, Ali Hamié, spoke on X of the work to “rehabilitate and reopen” the road to the Masnaa border post. The Syrian national agency Sana reported similar work on the Syrian side of the border.
