Israeli Airstrikes Hit Several Sites In Southern Syria Wounding One Soldier

Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli Airstrikes Hit Southern Syria: The Syrian state media reported on Sunday that Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early Sunday in which a soldier was wounded.

SANA, the state news agency, citing an unnamed military official, said air defenses shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at around 12:42 a.m. local time adding that the strikes led to “material losses” and the wounding of a soldier.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes also hit two military sites in the Qalamoun mountains northeast of Damascus and one of the targets was a weapons shipment.

Qalamoun Mountains is an area where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has operations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes represented the 24th time Israel has struck inside Syria since the beginning of 2024. They have killed 43 fighters with various groups, including Hezbollah and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and nine civilians.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes. Israel frequently launches strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

The Israeli army said that last week it carried out 4,500 strikes against Hezbollah targets over the past five months, most of which were in Lebanon, while a few were in Syria.

The army said in a statement that it “will not allow for any attempted actions which could lead to the entrenchment of Hezbollah on the Syrian front.”

(With AP inputs)