Scores killed as Israel targets Hezbollah in Syria, Lebanon

Dozens dead in relentless bombardment of Gaza Strip

Israel launched deadly crossborder strikes on Friday on Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon, doubling down on Iran-backed foes and Hamas allies, and fueling concerns the violence could spark a major regional conflagration.

The Israeli Army said it killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket unit, Ali Naim, in one of the attacks on southern Lebanon.

In Syria, “Israeli strikes” targeted a Hezbollah “rockets depot” in Aleppo province, killing 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah members and another pro-Iran fighter, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

It was the highest Syrian Army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, said the monitor, which also reported raids on “defense factories” controlled by pro-Iran groups elsewhere in the province.

Hezbollah said seven of its fighters were killed by Israeli fire, without specifying where or when they died. It said one was Naim, but did not specify his role.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Aleppo raids, which it said killed and wounded “a number of civilians and soldiers.” Damascus allies Russia and Iran also slammed the Israeli strikes. Moscow said they were “categorically unacceptable” while Iran said they were a “violation of Syria’s sovereignty” and “a serious threat to regional and international peace and security.”

Friday’s strikes were the second on Syria in 24 hours.

Syrian state media said “two civilians” were killed in an “Israeli air attack that targeted a residential building” on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Israel sustained its aerial and ground bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinians, as fighting raged around Gaza City’s main Al-Shifa Hospital. Palestinian health officials said two Israeli strikes on Al-Shejaia suburb in eastern Gaza City killed 17 people, while an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed eight people.

Gaza’s government media office said at least 10 policemen, tasked with securing aid to the displaced in northern Gaza, were among those killed in Al-Shejaia.

Japan is preparing to resume funding to the UN’s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza. Famine is quite possibly present in parts of the northern Gaza Strip, a senior US State Department official said, adding that a scarcity of trucks was an obstacle to getting more aid into the besieged enclave.