Israeli airstrikes target Syria-Lebanon border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Israeli airstrikes early Friday morning hit a crossing on the border between Syria and Lebanon.

The Israeli air force, in a post on X, said it carried out an attack on ”terrorist infrastructure near the Syrian regime's border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, which were used to transfer munitions to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

The strikes hit the Arida border crossing between southwest Syria and northern Lebanon, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported an Israeli strike on the al-Jubaniyah crossing in southwest Homs province the same day.

The United Kingdom-based war monitor said there was no immediate information on casualties.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah that supports the Syrian army.

The Israeli strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israeli territory that prompted Israel’s retaliation on the Gaza Strip. The conflict spread to Lebanon, where a fragile ceasefire is now in place.

Syria has seen an upsurge of violence since last week when a coalition of Syrian rebels led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a blistering offensive against the regime army. They took control of the northern city of Aleppo, the most populated urban centre in the country, and later advanced their offensive into the strategic central Hama province, capturing the city on Thursday when the Syrian army announced its withdrawal.