DAMASCUS: Israeli air strikes killed two pro-Iranian fighters near the Syrian capital Damascus early on Friday during raids targeting a Hezbollah arms depot and other sites near Syria’s capital, a war monitor said.
Israel has hit targets in Syria several times in the past weeks as regional tensions rise over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Citing a military source, Syria’s state news agency SANA earlier reported “material damage” from the strikes.
“At around 2:25 am (1125 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several positions in the vicinity of Damascus,” SANA said.
The military source did not provide details on the targets but added that Syria’s air defense intercepted some of the Israeli missiles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said “two foreign fighters” from pro-Iran groups were killed.
Several others were wounded, it added.
The strikes “destroyed an arms depot belonging to Hezbollah,” the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fighting alongside Syria’s regime, the Observatory said, adding the bombardment occurred along the road to Damascus airport.
The Observatory added that “sites linked to Hezbollah and pro-Iran militias” near the airport were also targeted.
Israeli strikes last month put Syria’s two main airports in Damascus and Aleppo out of service several times over two weeks, and the Damascus terminal remains out of operation.
On November 8, Israeli air strikes killed three pro-Iran fighters as they hit sites belonging to Hezbollah near Damascus, the Observatory reported at the time.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, when the Iran-backed Hamas fighters stormed out of the Gaza Strip, Hamas ally Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions have exchanged fire with Israeli forces across Lebanon’s southern border.
During the decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.
While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out in Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to extend its footprint there.
The Syrian war broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, escalating into a conflict involving foreign powers and global jihadist groups.
More than half a million people have been killed, and around half of Syria’s pre-war population forced from their homes.
Two pro-Iran fighters killed in Israeli Syria strikes: monitor
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Two pro-Iran fighters killed in Israeli Syria strikes: monitor
- Israel has lately targeted Syria several times as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip
Blinken says Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for Gaza’s future
Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority to take charge
KYIV: Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza where it faces the potential for a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Washington and its ally Israel say Hamas cannot continue to run Gaza after militants from the group ignited the conflict with attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7.
“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza... We’ve seen where that’s led all too many times for the people of Gaza and for Israel. And we also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” Blinken said during a press conference in Kyiv.
The US top diplomat has held numerous talks with Israel’s Arab neighbors on a post-conflict plan for Gaza since Israel vowed to root out Hamas from the Palestinian enclave more than seven months ago.
But Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority, which governs with partial authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take charge.
“It’s imperative that Israel also do this work and focus on what the future can and must be,” Blinken said. “There needs to be a clear and concrete plan, and we look to Israel to come forward with its ideas.”
Turkiye tells US that Israel’s attack on Rafah unacceptable, Turkish source says
- Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible
ANKARA: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his US counterpart Antony Blinken in a call on Wednesday that Israel’s attack on the Gazan city of Rafah is unacceptable, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, while emphasising that obstacles to the access of humanitarian aid into the enclave must be removed, the source said.
Ireland to recognize Palestinian statehood ‘this month’: FM Martin
- FM Micheal Martin: ‘We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month’
- Martin: ‘The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state’
DUBLIN: Ireland is certain to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the country’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said on Wednesday, without specifying a date.
“We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month,” Martin, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister, told the Newstalk radio station.
In March the leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta said in a joint statement that they stand ready to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Ireland has long said it has no objection in principle to officially recognizing the Palestinian state if it could help the peace process in the Middle East.
But Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza has given the issue new impetus.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, with others potentially following suit.
But Martin on Wednesday shied away from pinpointing a date.
“The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.
“It will become clear in the next few days as to the specific date but it certainly will be before the end of this month.
“I will look forward to consultations today with some foreign ministers in respect of the final specific detail of this.”
Last month during a visit to Dublin by Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez, Irish prime minister Simon Harris said the countries would coordinate the move together.
“When we move forward, we would like to do so with as many others as possible to lend weight to the decision and to send the strongest message,” said Harris.
Harris’s office said Wednesday that he updated King Abdullah II of Jordan by telephone on Ireland’s plan for statehood recognition.
Harris “outlined Ireland and Spain’s ongoing efforts on Palestinian recognition and ongoing discussions with other like-minded countries,” a statement read.
“The King and the Taoiseach (prime minister) agreed that both Ireland and Jordan should stay in touch in the coming days,” it added.
The conflict in Gaza followed Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Hezbollah says struck Israel after field commander’s killing
- Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells“
- The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched dozens of rockets at north Israel military positions Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a member Israel said was a field commander.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells” as well as targeting a barrack with “heavy rockets,” the group said.
The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said.
Israel’s army said sirens sounded in Meron on Wednesday without providing further details.
On Tuesday evening, Hezbollah said Israeli fire had killed its member Hussein Makki, who was identified as a field commander by a source close to the group.
The Israeli army later confirmed it had launched the strike that killed Makki.
It described him as “a senior field commander” in Hezbollah responsible for planning and executing “numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and territory.”
“He previously served as the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal region,” the army added.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported two people killed in an “enemy drone strike that targeted a car on the Tyre-Al-Hush main road.”
But another source close to Hezbollah later told AFP that while Makki was killed, the other person was injured.
At least 412 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also including 79 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in areas on both sides of the border.
Jordan foils militant attempt to smuggle arms
- Investigations are ongoing on the smuggling attempt
AMMAN: Jordan foiled an attempt by foreign-backed militants to smuggle arms into its territory, a security official told state news agency PETRA on Wednesday.
Security services seized the arms and detained the smugglers, who were Jordanians, in March.
“Investigations and operations are ongoing,” read the PETRA statement.
Jordan had recently blocked several attempts to smuggle arms including mines, explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and Katyusha rockets.
