30-3-2024 (BEIRUT) Israel unleashed its most lethal barrage of strikes in months on Aleppo province in northern Syria and claimed the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, intensifying its offensive against Iran’s proxies concurrent with the Gaza conflict.
Since Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7, Israel has escalated airstrikes against both the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria. Pilots have resumed training for deep raids into Lebanon in recent days.
Tehran and its proxies have entrenched themselves across Syria, including in Aleppo and Damascus.
The Israeli military announced on Friday the killing of Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, Hezbollah’s deputy commander of rocket and missile units, in an airstrike in Bazouriye, Lebanon. Naim was implicated in orchestrating attacks against Israeli civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire across Lebanon’s southern border, marking the most significant escalation since their 2006 war. Hezbollah’s rocket attacks into Israel have demonstrated solidarity with Hamas.
Approximately a dozen Israeli soldiers and half a dozen civilians have died in northern Israel, while nearly 270 Hezbollah fighters and 50 civilians, including medics and journalists, have perished in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Israeli occupation aircraft launch multiple airstrikes on the outskirts of Shabaa in southern #Lebanon.#IsraelEthnicCleansingGaza #IsraeliNewNazism #StopArmingIsrael #GazaHolocasut #GenocideJoe #GazaGenocide #Gaza #Israel #FreePalesine #IsraeliNazis pic.twitter.com/FaJ6UpOcyn
— Sereen (@Sereen_Sara) March 30, 2024
Israeli strikes on Damascus and Aleppo airports have disrupted weapons flows to Iran’s regional allies. However, strikes since October 7 have been more deadly, prompting Iran to withdraw senior officers from Syria.
Syria’s defence ministry reported Israeli strikes in southeastern Aleppo province at around 1:45 a.m., resulting in civilian and military casualties. Concurrent drone attacks from Idlib and western rural Aleppo targeted civilians, according to the ministry.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned Israel’s actions as a “blatant and desperate attempt” to escalate the conflict. Russia also denounced the strikes as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
Sources indicated that 33 Syrians and six Hezbollah fighters were killed in the strikes. One of the Hezbollah casualties was a local commander whose brother died in a previous Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
In a separate incident, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah fighter.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah assured IRGC’s Quds Force head, Esmail Qaani, in February that Hezbollah did not seek to embroil Iran in a war with Israel. Hezbollah has pledged to cease fire if a Gaza ceasefire is achieved, but Israeli and US officials maintain that a Gaza truce would not apply to Lebanon.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing across the border into Israel eight times on Friday.
