BEIRUT – A Syria war monitor said Israel struck illegal crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border early Friday, the latest such attack on the frontier area.
“Israeli bombardment targets the illegal crossings between Syria and Lebanon” in Wadi Khaled on the Lebanese side and in the west of Syria’s Homs province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman reported “heavy material damage to buildings and vehicles”.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported “enemy aircraft flying at low altitude over the city of Hermel” and villages in the Bekaa Valley in the country’s northeast near the Syrian border.
In Lebanon, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has been in place since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war. Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike targeting a tunnel on the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.
In January, Israel carried out air strikes in Lebanon targeting areas in the east and south according to Lebanese state media, with the Israeli military saying it hit Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria. Syria shares a 330-kilometre (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no official demarcation.
Hezbollah lost a supply route when Islamist-led rebels in December ousted ally Assad in Syria.
Hezbollah holds sway in large parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border, and had fought alongside now-deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad’s troops in Syria’s war.