Israel says it struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites in Syria, kills October 7 attacker
The Hindu
Israeli aircraft strike Hezbollah weapons sites in Syria-Lebanon border, testing ceasefire; Gaza war continues, casualties reported.
Israeli aircraft struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday (November 30, 2024), testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting between the sides but has seen continued sporadic fire.
The military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military said was a violation of its terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations, several times since the ceasefire began on Wednesday (November 27, 2024).
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah does not address the war in Gaza, where fighting rages on. On Saturday (November 30, 2024), an Israeli strike on a car killed five people, according to Muneer Alboursh, a senior Palestinian health official, who said the toll included three employees of the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK). The charity could not immediately be reached for comment and made no mention of the incident on its social media.
The Israeli military said it struck a vehicle carrying a militant involved in Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. It said it was looking into the reported ties to WCK, but said the car was unmarked and had not coordinated aid delivery with the military as charities have done during the war.
An Israeli strike in April on a WCK convoy killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners. The Israeli military said it was a mistake.
The Israeli strike in Syria came as insurgents there breached the country's largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.
The truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of Lebanon's Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
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