Israel says it struck thousands of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, Syria during war on Gaza

Jerusalem, Undefined – AFP

Israel has attacked more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria and 3,400 in Lebanon since its war on Gaza began in October, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Saturday.

“Since the beginning of the war, we have attacked, from the ground and air, more than 50 such targets of Hezbollah spread throughout Syria,” Hagari told reporters, adding that more than 3,400 similar strikes against the group had been carried out in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has for years been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s war, and is an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.

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.

Since October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed near-daily exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

At least 218 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 26 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Hagari on Saturday said more than 200 “terrorists and commanders” had been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

In northern Israel, nine Israeli soldiers and six civilians have been killed, Israeli officials have said.

Late on Friday the United States carried out air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria and promised more to come, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday.

The US military said it struck a total of 85 targets at seven different sites in Syria and Iraq.

The strikes killed at least 29 pro-Iran fighters in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said. In Iraq, they killed 16 people, including civilians, the Baghdad government said.

Bases hosting US and allied troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October in a campaign waged by Iran-backed armed groups angered by US support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed killed at least 27,238 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.