Israel launches deadly attacks on civilian areas in Syria and Lebanon, top Hamas official killed, Hezbollah warned of escalation

Al Jazeera
Tue, 02 Jan 2024 19:52 UTC

As war in Gaza rages, Israel is continuing its campaign against Syrian military and Hezbollah targets, sparking fears of regional spillover.

Israel has launched attacks on positions in Syria and Lebanon, as part of its ongoing campaign against opposing militaries and armed forces in the Middle East.

"The [Israeli army] struck military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian Army," the Israeli military said in a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday.

"[Israeli military] fighter jets also struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon," it added, promising it would "continue to operate against any threat to Israel's sovereignty".

Comment: Footage shows that this 'terrorist infrastructure' was, in fact, a suburb:

Israel's military has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah and has launched repeated air raids on Syria since its war on Gaza began on October 7, raising fears of the conflict spilling over into the wider region.

Comment: Israel has been illegally attacking Syria, and with impunity, for years.

The latest attacks, which occurred between Monday and Tuesday, marked a spike in tensions between Israel and neighbours it has said have links to its enemy, Iran.

Earlier on Tuesday, Syrian state news agency SANA said pre-dawn Israeli attacks came from the direction of the Golan Heights.

The air raids targeted "a number of sites in the Damascus countryside", SANA reported, citing an unnamed military source as saying only "material damage" had been caused.

Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that one position targeted near the town of Kanaker housed members from Lebanon's Hezbollah, the AFP news agency reported.

Comment: The SOHR is a Western intel outfit and is thus an unreliable source.

Parts of the southern Lebanese city of Yaroun also came under fire, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, after Hezbollah announced it had fired on Israeli units near the northern Israeli village of Sarit.

Iran links

"What Israel is facing at the moment is fighters in various countries in the region that are mostly backed by Iran," said Al Jazeera's Sara Khairat, reporting from Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Syria and Iran are regional allies, with President Bashar al-Assad having received staunch support from Tehran during the war in Syria. Since its formation in 1982, Iran-backed Hezbollah has grown into a powerful "state within a state" in Lebanon, and has also backed Hamas in Gaza.

"Of course the biggest threat so far has been from the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon that has been firing every single day," Khairat said. "This is just showing that despite [Israel's] continued war in Gaza, these attacks are going to continue.

Comment: Those relatively minor attacks are a response to Israel's genocide and illegal occupation.

"Certainly there has been a call amongst those in the [Israeli] military to start to look to redirect their efforts especially along that northern border, with Israel itself saying that if diplomatic efforts don't work then it wouldn't be afraid to consider other military action against Lebanon," our correspondent added.

Comment: Much of the world knows that Israel isn't utilising diplomacy.

Tuesday's attacks follow closely on the heels of an Israeli air raid near Aleppo at the end of December, which caused some material damage, according to the Syrian Ministry of Defence.

Since the Syrian war began, Israel has launched hundreds of air raids on Syrian territory, both on Syrian military and Hezbollah targets. Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

In December, an Israeli air raid outside Damascus killed Razi Moussavi, a senior adviser in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.

Reports from Iran's news agency INRA said that Mousavi had been part of an entourage accompanying IRGC General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport when he was killed by a US drone attack almost exactly four years ago.

Comment: Al Jazeera reports:

Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri killed in Beirut suburb

Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri has been killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh, the Palestinian group and Lebanese media outlets say.

Al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday in a "treacherous Zionist strike", Hamas said on its official channel. Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Sharq called it a "cowardly assassination".

Al-Arouri was a senior official in Hamas's politburo and was known to be deeply involved in its military affairs. He had previously headed the group's presence in the occupied West Bank.

Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, leaders of Hamas' armed wing - the Qassam Brigades - were also killed, Hamas said in a message on its Telegram channel.

It named four other members of the group who were also killed.

Earlier, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the blast has killed at least six people and that it was carried out by an Israeli drone.

Hamas said al-Arouri's killing would not "undermine the continued brave resistance" in Gaza, where the Palestinian group's fighters are battling Israeli ground forces.

"It proves once more the utter failure of the enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip," senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said in a statement.

The group's top leader Ismail Haniyeh condemned the attack, and said the killing of Hamas members in Beirut was a "terrorist act", a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and an expansion of Israel's circle of hostility against Palestinians.

Haniyeh said Hamas "will never be defeated" in televised remarks.

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the United States news channel MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for the attack but "whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state".

"Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership," Regev said in an interview.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killing. His office said in a statement that the attack "aims to draw Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations" with Israel at a time when Hamas ally Hezbollah has been exchanging daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in northern Israel, the statement said.

'Dangerous escalation'

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said there was "panic" in the Lebanese capital after the attack.

"The targeted killing made many people here in the capital feel that this conflict could widen and could escalate, and all eyes are now on Hezbollah's reaction," Khodr said.

Iran, which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, said al-Arouri's killing would create more resistance against Israel, its state media reported.

"The martyr's blood will undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers not only in Palestine but also in the region and among all freedom seekers worldwide," Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said.

Netanyahu had threatened to kill al-Arouri long before Israel's latest assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israeli political analyst Akiva Eldar told Al Jazeera the killing was a much needed success for Netanyahu.

Imad Harb, director of research at the Arab Center Washington DC, agreed, saying Israel carried out the attack in search for what has become an elusive win.

"So far, the Israelis have not been able to call a victory in Gaza, so assassinating Hamas leaders is partly something that they wanted to do anyway," he told Al Jazeera. "This is an achievement for the Israeli army and for the Israeli politicians."

Since Israeli forces and Hezbollah began exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border on October 8, the fighting has largely been concentrated a few kilometres inside each country. But on several occasions, Israel's air force has hit what it said were Hezbollah positions deeper inside Lebanon.

Harb said the killing of al-Arouri is a "dangerous escalation" because it took place in Hezbollah's area of operations, far from the border.

Harb predicted Hezbollah would likely step up attacks on Israel in response to the killing but would stop short of escalating the conflict into an all-out war.

Meanwhile, at mosques in Arura, the hometown of the slain Hamas leader in the West Bank, Palestinians gathered to mourn al-Arouri's death.

Protests and gatherings also took place in Ramallah and several nearby towns, such as Deir Qaddis.

A general strike in Ramallah has also been called for Wednesday.

Notably, on New Year's Eve:

Hezbollah warns of escalation in cross-border clashes with Israeli regime

Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem has warned the Zionist regime if it insists on its warmongering attempts, they will receive stronger blows from the Resistance in the future.

Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Sunday that Operation Al-Aqsa Storm is creating a new phase in the region which will lead to cultural, and political progress plus an expansion of the resistance after the end of the war, Lebanese Al-Manar TV website reported.

Referring to the Zionist regime's proposals on northern Palestine and southern Lebanon, he said that the Israeli regime is trying to show that it has options that allow the settlers to safely return to the north and keep Hezbollah and Resistance out of southern Lebanon, but they should know that the Zionist regime is not in a position to impose its options.

He added that the Zionist regime cannot return the settlers to the north, nor will it be able to achieve anything in this war or the end of it.

The Zionist regime must first halt the Gaza war to stop the war on the Lebanese front, and if they persist in warmongering attempts, they will receive stronger blows from the Resistance in the future.

The remarks came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his hollow threats against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and said that the regime restore security to the northern residents through diplomatic option or a military operation.

See also:

• UK's elite forces training in Lebanon, US Embassy in Beirut becomes new regional intelligence HQ
• Forbes asks: 'Was Israel responsible for the Beirut explosion?' (August 2020)