Israeli forces attacked the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early Friday morning, killing 38 people, including five members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, two security officials said. This was the deadliest attack to date in Israel's stepped-up campaign against Iran's allies in Syria. Since the October 7 invasion of Israel by the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas, Israel has stepped up airstrikes against both Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria.
The Iranian government and its proxies have strongholds throughout Syria, including around Aleppo and the capital Damascus. Israel has repeatedly attacked the international airports of both cities over the years to disrupt the flow of arms to Iran's allies in the region, but the attacks since October 7 have been more deadly, with Iran deporting top officials from Syria. It was decided to withdraw part of the
The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that Israeli forces attacked several areas in southeastern Aleppo province at around 1:45 a.m. local time (22:45 local time on Thursday), killing numerous civilians and military personnel. did. The ministry said the airstrikes coincided with drone attacks carried out from Idlib and western Aleppo countryside, which the ministry said were carried out by “terrorist organizations” against civilians in and around Aleppo.
The Israeli military declined to comment. Three security sources told Reuters the dead included five Hezbollah fighters. One of them was a local field commander whose brother was killed in an Israeli military offensive in southern Lebanon in November, one of the sources said.
In parallel to the war in Gaza, Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire across Lebanon's southern border. Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have killed more than 270 Hezbollah fighters and 50 civilians, including medical workers, civilians and journalists. Approximately 12 Israeli troops and half of them civilians were killed in northern Israel.
This marks the biggest escalation since 2006, when the two heavily armed adversaries fought a month-long war. Although a UN resolution ended that war, diplomatic efforts have so far failed to stop the current cross-border shelling.