Two individuals affiliated with Hezbollah perished in an airstrike conducted by Israel on a truck close to the Syrian-Lebanon border on Sunday morning. Simultaneously, a detonation from a landmine, believed to have been left by the Islamic State group, claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians who were scavenging for truffles in the Syrian desert, as reported by a monitoring group.
Two Hezbollah members killed as Israel allegedly strikes Syria-Lebanon border
Two members of the Hezbollah group were killed as Israel allegedly carried out an airstrike on a truck near the Syrian-Lebanon border Sunday morning, Times of Israel reported.
Footage showed the truck engulfed in flames on a road outside Qusayr, a Syrian city south of Homs near the border with northern Lebanon.
Shortly after the strike, Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah announced that two of its operatives were killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes. It did not say where the two were killed.
The pair, named Hussein al-Dirani and Ahmed al-Afi, were from Qsarnaba and Brital, two towns in the Baalbek District, adjacent to the Syrian region where the alleged Israeli strike took place.
Their deaths brought the group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip to 214.
Shortly after the reported strike and throughout Sunday afternoon, several volleys of rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, all landing in open areas, according to the Israel Defense Forces and police.
There were no reports of damage or injuries.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it targeted an army base near Margaliot and IDF positions near Kiryat Shmona. It also claimed to have targeted an army base in the Mount Dov region on the border.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the strike near Qusayr, an area identified in the past as a Hezbollah stronghold. There was no comment from Syrian authorities.