Two Hezbollah fighters among four dead in Israel strikes near Damascus, according to war monitor

Two Hezbollah fighters and two Syrians cooperating with the Lebanese group were killed in Israeli strikes overnight near Damascus, according to a war monitor, the latest such attack as Israel battled Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed late Sunday that two Hezbollah locations in the Sayyida Zeinab district south of the capital, as well as “a radar battalion” near the airport, were attacked. “Two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and two Syrian guards” working at one of the Iran-backed movement’s sites were killed, while three other fighters and three civilians were wounded, added the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. Hezbollah published a statement on Monday reporting the death of two of its fighters, but did not explain where or when it occurred. However, an unnamed source close to Hezbollah informed AFP that the men were slain in Syria. Since Syria’s civil conflict began in 2011, Israel has undertaken hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, largely targeting Iran-backed forces such as Hezbollah militants and Syrian army sites. However, it has increased its strikes since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s war for years, and is an ally of the Palestinian Islamist party Hamas. Earlier the Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a military source, reported that Israel launched an air assault at around 2005 GMT targeting “various points on the outskirts of Damascus”. “Our anti-aircraft defences shot down some missiles while others caused limited material damage,” it said. An AFP correspondent reported strong explosions in the Damascus suburbs. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs Assad, to expand its presence there. The Israeli army declined to comment on the SANA report, but said separately that shots had been fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel on Sunday evening. “The army retaliated by targeting the source of the fire. Earlier in the day, we had struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell,” it said in a statement. Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon on Sunday, where he spoke of the need “to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority”. “It can also come in the form of a strike and war,” he said. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and strikes at various points along the southern border with Israel on Sunday. Three Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian were killed on Friday in an Israeli drone strike on their car in southern Syria, the Observatory had said. Damascus’s international airport is currently out of service after successive Israeli strikes targeted the facility.