Bombing at the Lebanon-Syria Border; Claim of Syrian 'Coordination' with Israel Against Hezbollah

The Israeli army announced that it targeted an area at the border with Lebanon and Syria with airstrikes, which, according to Syrian state media, aimed at key infrastructure. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 15 people were injured in these attacks carried out in the Homs region. Syrian officials have not yet confirmed this news, but the Homs area is considered a base for Hezbollah. Israel typically does not provide explanations for its military operations, but following a report from the Syrian official news agency, SANA, it confirmed the execution of these attacks. The Israeli army's statement says: 'The Israeli Air Force targeted smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon based on findings from military intelligence.' The statement adds: 'These roads, which stretch from Syria to Lebanon, are used for smuggling weapons to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.' On the other hand, SANA reported that 'Israeli aggressions' in the Homs area faced anti-aircraft fire. The U.S. military announced an attack on positions of Iranian-linked groups in Syria. The news agency quoted a military source stating that Israeli aircraft targeted bridges over the 'Assi' river and roads around the Syria-Lebanon border. According to this military source, the Israeli attacks caused 'significant damage' and disabled some infrastructures, although no further details were provided about these infrastructures. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that Israeli military aircraft targeted bridges and military checkpoints in Syria. According to this group, 15 members of the Syrian armed forces or allied groups were injured in these attacks. Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has targeted Syrian military forces and their allied groups hundreds of times with airstrikes. Claims of Syrian 'coordination' with Israel to weaken Hezbollah were made by Israel's Channel 14, which supports Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kan, the national media network, on Wednesday night, alleging that the Syrian government, in 'coordination with Israel,' is preventing Hezbollah from rearming following the weakening of its military capabilities and the strikes against its cadre. These reports indicate that warnings issued by Israel to Bashar al-Assad regarding the potential for strikes against his government have led to a relatively calm situation along the Syrian-Israeli borders, with minimal tension and attacks from the Golan Heights region over the past 13 months. These two networks referred to the border areas between Israel and Syria as the 'calmest' borders of Israel, emphasizing that Bashar al-Assad, by practically distancing Iran and its proxies from these borders, has expanded relations with Gulf monarchies to preserve his regime. These reports claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran is displeased with the Syrian government for its lack of practical cooperation with the 'Axis of Resistance' since the attack by the extremist group Hamas on Israel, but Bashar al-Assad has 'separated' his path from Tehran. According to Kan, senior Syrian officers in the southern province of Daraa have blocked routes for transferring Iranian equipment from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, cutting off the 'oxygen' needed for this group. The Islamic Republic of Iran announced the dispatch of Mohammad Javad Larijani, an advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, to Damascus for a meeting and discussions with Bashar al-Assad on November 15. Prior to him, the Iranian Foreign Minister had visited Damascus last month. Meanwhile, Syrian television reported on Wednesday, citing Lebanese sources, that the father of Hassan Nasrallah, the deceased Secretary-General of Hezbollah, was killed in the recent Israeli attack that resulted in the death of Salim Ayyash in Syrian territory. Multiple sources reported to media outlets like Al Arabiya that Salim Ayyash, an old commander of Hezbollah who was sentenced in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for his involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, was killed in an attack attributed to Israel on the evening of Saturday, November 11, in the Qusair area in western Syria, near the Lebanese center. In the meantime, Avichai Adraee, the spokesperson for the Israeli army for Arabic-speaking audiences, called on residents of two neighborhoods in the Dahiyeh area of Lebanon on the morning of Thursday, November 15, to evacuate due to an 'imminent' air operation by the Israeli army against 'Hezbollah facilities.' On Wednesday night, Israel also conducted four waves of attacks in areas of Dahiyeh that they identified as Hezbollah targets. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported the deaths of eight individuals in another Israeli operation in a village south of Beirut on Wednesday evening. The death toll in Lebanon during the 13 months of conflict, which began with daily Hezbollah attacks in support of Hamas against Israel, has reached 3,365 by November 15. The Lebanese government does not separate militants from the total death toll, but Hezbollah updated its casualties on Wednesday, stating that approximately 1,500 of its militants have been lost. Hezbollah's attacks during these 13 months have killed about one hundred military and civilian individuals in northern Israel. On the other hand, the Israeli army reported that six members of the elite 'Golani' military brigade were killed on Wednesday in a military operation in a Shia-populated village in southern Lebanon. The Israeli Defense Minister stated: 'There is no ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.' Meanwhile, Iraqi Shia groups allied with the Islamic Republic of Iran, operating under the umbrella of 'Islamic Resistance in Iraq,' claimed responsibility on the morning of Thursday, November 15, for sending three drones towards 'vital targets' in Israel. According to Israeli media, sirens sounded in the southern port city of Eilat on Wednesday evening to alert residents, and afterward, the Israeli navy announced that its air defense-equipped corvettes intercepted and neutralized a drone sent from the 'East' (likely referring to Iraq). Additionally, according to Kan, two other drones from the 'East' were intercepted in the sky over Syria before entering Israel.