IDF Launches Strikes On Syrian Side Of Golan, And Separate Strikes Near Damascus

Syrian media reports IDF strike in Quneitra border region

EMANUEL FABIAN

Syrian media reported on Tuesday evening of an Israeli missile strike on an area in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

The state-run SANA news agency reported that “initial information indicates an Israeli missile attack west of the town of Hader in the northern Quneitra countryside,” adding that two missiles were fired in the strike.

Footage taken from the Israeli side of the fence shows an object flying through the air before it exploded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group of unclear funding that has activists on the ground in Syria, said that the Israeli strikes on Tuesday targeted areas where Iran-backed fighters are based.

Another independent pro-opposition Syrian source in the Golan Heights claimed two separate sites were hit: one belonging to the Hezbollah terror group, and the other being the office of the Syrian First Division’s 90th Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Hussein Hamoush.

Hamoush has been previously named by the Israel Defense Forces, in leaflets dropped in the area, as cooperating with Hezbollah, with Syrian troops warned not to corporate with the Iran-backed militias in the area.

Explosions rock Syria in alleged Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah arms depots

TOI STAFF and AP

Syrian air defenses were activated against Israeli missile attacks on sites near Damascus and Homs, Syrian state media reported late Thursday, citing a military source.

Loud explosions shook the Syrian capital during the reported air strikes, two days after the Israeli military reportedly conducted twin missile strikes on a Syrian army base and an outpost controlled by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

A military source told Syria’s official SANA news agency that most missiles fired by Israel had been intercepted by its air defense systems. The source said the missiles had come from the direction of Beirut in neighboring Lebanon just after 11 p.m.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

“The results of the aggression are being looked into,” the source told SANA.

Damascus residents reported hearing at least five loud explosions that shook apartment buildings over a 15 minute time span. The missiles appeared to have been fired from over Lebanon, jolting residents who heard them streak across the sky before striking targets in Syria.

Blasts could be heard in videos distributed by SANA, which showed what appeared to be missiles streaking across the sky.

Israel drops threatening flyers in south Syria following nighttime strike nearby

JUDAH ARI GROSS 

The Israel Defense Forces reportedly dropped threatening pamphlets in southern Syria on Wednesday, warning Syrian soldiers to stop cooperating with Hezbollah, hours after reportedly conducting twin missile strikes on a Syrian military base and an outpost controlled by the Lebanese terror group.

The flyers, which were written in Arabic and addressed to “Syrian [Arab] Army soldiers,” matched the style of similar leaflets that have been dropped in Syria in the past and included the silhouette of an eagle — the symbol of the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Division, which is tasked with defending Israel’s frontier with Syria and the Golan Heights. The IDF refused to comment on the matter.

In the pamphlet, the Israeli military appeared to take responsibility for the shelling of a Syrian army base earlier this summer. The Israeli military has not publicly acknowledged conducting that strike or most others that it has carried out in Syria in recent years, under its general policy of ambiguity regarding its efforts against Hezbollah in the country.

“Despite our previous warnings about this and even after the attack on the al-Qahtaniah base on 17/06/21, Hezbollah — in a manipulative way — has turned you into a tool, into marionettes. It uses you as its eyes and it uses your bases without you even knowing,” the flyer reads.

The flyer also directly names the Hezbollah official that the IDF believes is facilitating the relationship between the Iran-backed terror group and the Syrian military, Jawad Hasham, the son of Hajj Hasham, who leads Hezbollah’s efforts along the Syrian border.