Report: Israel Targeted Hezbollah Leaders in Damascus Raid

Israel has not commented on Syrian claims that it was Israeli planes that carried out a major bombing raid in southern Syria overnight Tuesday, but according to sources quoted in Newsweek, among the targets of the Israeli bombing were several Hezbollah leaders. The magazine quoted a Department of Defense source, which received the information from senior Israeli military officials.

Several Israeli media sources also reported that senior Hezbollah terrorists had been killed in the attack. The Israeli sources quoted a Lebanese media, Lebanon Al-Jadid, which said that the Hezbollah delegation had arrived in Damascus earlier Tuesday and were on their way to the Damascus airport, where they were to board a plane for Iran to participate in the funeral of a top Iranian official.

Besides the Hezbollah delegation, Newsweek said, the Israeli planes also targeted several Iranian weapons depots. According to the report, the depots “contained valuable, GPS-guided ammunition from 2017, some of the best available to the Iranian army and Hezbollah.” According to Reuters, three Syrian soldiers were wounded in the attacks.

Loud noises were also heard Tuesday night in the area of Chadera, Caesarea and Zichron Yaakov. The IDF has not commented on the source of those explosions, but foreign media reports said that it appeared that Syria had fired a missile at Israel. In a statement, the IDF said that Israel had activated its air-defense system against a missile launched from Syria. There were no damage or casualties to Israeli forces or civilians.