Analysis: Israeli military targets Hezbollah activity in Syria

Credit: Planet Labs via Aurora Intel; Imagery of Southern Damascus/South-West Syria, Monthly Basemap Imagery – October

State-run Syrian news agency (SANA) reported Tuesday night that the Israeli military launched airstrikes against southern Syria shortly before midnight.

“At 23:50 on the night of 11/24, the Zionist enemy launched an airstrike from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan towards southern Damascus, and the losses were limited to material only,” SANA reported.

The attack came one week after Israel retaliated against Syrian and Iranian forces after IEDs were discovered on the Alpha Line at the Golan-Syria border. Israel blamed Iran’s Quds Force’s Unit 840 for perpetrating the thwarted IED offensive.

One of the airstrikes produced a large explosion followed by a secondary explosion indicating the presence of combustible material stored at the targeted location.

Additionally, satellite imagery taken after the airstrikes reveal extensive damage at two warehouses located south of Damascus near Jabal al-Mana.

As previously detailed in FDD’s Long War Journal, Israel has been carrying out an extended military campaign against Iranian entrenchment in Syria and its effort to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon with precision guided munitions.

Iran’s precision guided munitions project aims to upgrade Hezbollah’s missile accuracy by transferring Iranian-made components to Lebanon, allowing Hezbollah to strike targets accurately.

Over the last several weeks, the IDF has dropped leaflets along the Israel-Syria border warning the Syrian Army’s First Corps and Syrians living near the border not to serve the interests of Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah: From a guest to a master of the Syrian Army in the south,” a leaflet dropped earlier this week stated.

Given the extensive documentation of Israeli military activity against Hezbollah in Syria, it is the assessment of FDD’s Long War Journal that Tuesday’s airstrikes was yet another attempt by the IDF to thwart Hezbollah activity in southern Syria.

Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East.

Tags: , , , , ,

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis