Syrian state media reports that Israeli strikes killed eight soldiers in southern Syria early today, in what the Israeli army said was a response to earlier rocket fire.
Persistent rocket and artillery exchanges with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions across Israel’s northern borders with Lebanon and Syria have raised fears of a new front in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Syrian state media said the strikes also wounded seven soldiers and caused material damage.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 soldiers were killed, including four officers.
The Britain-based war monitor said the strikes “destroyed arms depots and a Syrian air defence radar” and also targeted an infantry unit.
The Israeli army said its “fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortars belonging to the Syrian army in response to the launches towards Israel yesterday.
Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip since militants from Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7 and went on a rampage that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran, which supports President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence.
