Israeli strikes on Syria-Lebanon border kill six: State media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least six people including soldiers and a health worker were killed on Wednesday in Israeli strikes on the Syrian-Lebanese border, state media reported, before an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect. 

“At 05:00 after midnight, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon in the western countryside of Homs. The aggression killed six people, including two soldiers and civilians,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military source. 

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was also killed in the strikes, which incurred “significant material damage.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, also reported the strikes on unofficial border crossings and bridges between Syria and Lebanon.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas in Syria through its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army.

Israel rarely confirms strikes attributed to it in Syria, but has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold in the country.

Israel has carried out 157 strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 284 combatants and wounding 245 more, according to data from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The strikes have also killed 55 civilians.