The Israeli army announced late Wednesday evening that it had carried out strikes in an area of southern Syria considered by the Jewish state to be the
"second front"
of Lebanese Hezbollah operation.
“Not long ago, during an army activity in the Golan Heights, soldiers identified suspects near a military position and fired at them from tanks.
The suspects then moved into Syrian territory
, ”the army said in a brief message in Hebrew.
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Israel conquered in 1967 and annexed part of the Syrian Golan Heights, a strategic region also bordering on Lebanon and patrolled by its soldiers.
According to the Syrian news agency Sana, Israeli helicopters also fired into forests near the Syrian village of Al-Hurriya, located in the Qouneïtra sector, on the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported fires and an "intense presence" of Israeli helicopters in this area without, however, mentioning any victims.
The Israeli army, which in recent years has stepped up airstrikes against elements deemed pro-Iranian in Syria, considers this sector of southern Syria as the "second front" of Hezbollah, a Lebanese movement close to Iran which has in 2006 waged war on the Hebrew state.
Israel regularly asserts that it will not allow Syria to become the foothold for forces in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country hostile to the Hebrew state.
On Tuesday, the IDF said on Tuesday it had shot down a small observation drone that Hezbollah was flying over the highly militarized border between Lebanon and Israel.