Israeli raids in southern Syria killed eight troops early Wednesday, according to Syrian state media, in reaction to earlier rocket fire, according to the Israeli army.
Consistent rocket and artillery exchanges with Hezbollah and affiliated Palestinian forces across Israel’s northern borders with Lebanon and Syria have fuelled fears of a new front in Israel’s battle with Hamas in Gaza.
“Around 1:45 am (2245 GMT Tuesday), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the occupied Golan Heights,” Syrian state media said.
They 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.
According to the British-based war monitor, the strikes “destroyed arms depots and a Syrian air defense radar” as well as an army battalion.
The Israeli air force said that its “fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortars belonging to the Syrian army in response to the launches towards Israel yesterday (Tuesday)” .
According to Syrian state television, Israeli strikes on Sunday knocked out Syria’s two main airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
Since militants from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas burst into Israel on October 7 and went on a rampage that Israeli police estimate murdered over 1,400 people, Israel has encircled the Gaza Strip.
They also snatched more than 220 hostages in the worst-ever attack in Israel’s history.
Israel has responded with lethal air attacks and a near-total land, sea, and air blockade of Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry claims 5,791 people have died in the conflict.
Throughout Syria’s more than a decade-long civil conflict, Israel has undertaken hundreds of air attacks, largely targeting Hezbollah members and other Iran-backed forces, as well as Syrian army sites.
Although Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, it has frequently stated that it will not allow its arch-foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to increase its influence.
Israel occupied much of the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the United Nations.