(Beirut) Two people were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike targeting a Hezbollah vehicle in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, with a source close to the powerful Lebanese group announcing the death of a former bodyguard of its leader.
“At least two people were killed and a third injured following an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah car in the Jdeidet Yabous region,” near the Lebanese border, said SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The car was targeted near a Syrian army checkpoint, according to the NGO, which is based in the United Kingdom but has a vast network of sources in the war-torn country.
A source close to the pro-Iranian group said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that a former bodyguard of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in the strike, identifying him as “Qarnabach.” Hezbollah announced in a statement that a fighter with the same surname was killed.
Later, Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at a military base in the Israeli-occupied and annexed Syrian Golan Heights “in response to the attack and assassination by the Israeli enemy.” […] on the Damascus-Beirut road.
Also on Tuesday, Hezbollah released a video showing aerial surveillance footage that the group said was taken by its “air force aircraft” over military and intelligence positions in the Golan.
Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes targeting the army of President Bashar al-Assad and the pro-Iranian groups that support him, such as Hezbollah, which is heavily deployed on both sides of the border.
Israeli strikes have increased since the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, on Israeli territory on October 7 and the Israeli response in the Gaza Strip.
However, they have decreased in intensity since a strike attributed to Israel which targeted the 1er April the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing senior Iranian officers. Tehran responded on April 13 with an unprecedented air strike against Israel.
An Israeli strike had already targeted the area around the town of Banias on the Syrian coast during the night from Monday to Tuesday, according to official media.
At least 25 Hezbollah members have been killed in Syria in Israeli strikes since October 8, according to an AFP tally.
Israeli officials rarely comment on the strikes in Syria, but say they will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Hezbollah and the Israeli army have also been exchanging daily fire since October on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The violence left at least 497 dead in Lebanon, most of them fighters, but also 95 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed, according to authorities.