Israel is understood to have killed two fighters from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in a drone strike in Syria, a move that could raise tensions in the Middle East following the death of Tehran’s president in a helicopter crash.
The drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, a war observer in the region said.
This is the third Israeli strike against Hezbollah targets in Syria in about a week.
Israel killed eight pro-Iran fighters in an attack in the Qusayr area near the Lebanese border on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another attack on May 18 targeted “a Hezbollah commander and his companion,” but no casualties were reported.
And on April 2, the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital, was attacked, killing seven people, including a top commander and his deputy.
Israel rarely comments on individual attacks in Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow its archenemy Iran to expand its presence there.
Attacks have increased since Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.
Pictured: The aftermath of the Israeli missile attack on the Iranian embassy consulate building in Damascus.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separation wall between Egypt and Rafah on May 7.
Palestinians fleeing Jabalia in the northern region, photographed arriving in Gaza City on May 24, 2024.
Today’s missile attack comes as Israel also bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just a day after the UN’s top court ordered the IDF to stop its military operations in the southern city.
The bombing came as efforts were launched in Paris to seek a ceasefire in the war sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanded the immediate release of all hostages still held by Palestinian militants hours after the Israeli army announced that troops had recovered the bodies of three more of the northern Gaza captives. .
The Hague-based court, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also ordered Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which it closed earlier this month at the start of its assault on the city.
Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting the court had made a mistake.
“Israel has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,” national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a joint statement with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ministry spokesperson.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the ICJ ruling on Rafah but criticized its decision to exclude the rest of war-torn Gaza from order.
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week that the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages.”
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 24, 2024.
Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just a day after the UN top court ordered the IDF to stop its military operations in the southern city on May 24, 2024.
CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet Israeli representatives in Paris in a bid to relaunch negotiations, a Western source close to the matter said.
On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron received the Prime Minister of Qatar and the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on Friday “to press for a ceasefire,” according to Cairo.
The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The five countries discussed “the effective implementation of the two-state solution,” he added.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing as soon as possible, Washington said.
Palestinian witnesses reported Israeli attacks on Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
“We hope that the court’s decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination, because there is nothing left here,” said Oum Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah by the war.
‘But Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will be stopped except by force,” said Mohammed Saleh, also in the central city of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, further delaying sporadic aid deliveries to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
In a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, ICJ President Nawaf Salam delivered the ruling by the 15-judge panel in The Hague.
A lone protester waves the Palestinian flag in front of the Peace Palace, rear, which houses the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague.
Smoke rises during an Israeli airstrike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 24, 2024.
But on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a call with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to allow U.N. aid through the other entry point into southern Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, the agency said. White House.
The US military also set up a temporary jetty on the coast of Gaza to receive aid by sea, which a UN spokesman said had delivered 97 trucks of aid after “a rocky start” a week ago.
The humanitarian and security situation in the territory remains alarming, with the risk of famine, hospitals out of service and around 800,000 people, according to the United Nations, having fled Rafah in the last two weeks.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said the situation had reached “a moment of clarity”.
“Humanitarian workers and UN staff must be able to do their jobs safely,” he posted on the social media site X on Friday night.
‘At a time when the people of Gaza face famine… it is more critical than ever to pay attention to the so-called events over the past seven months: releasing the hostages. Agree on a ceasefire. End this nightmare.’