“The number of dead as a result of the Israeli attacks on the Masyaf countryside rose to 7 people, consisting of 3 civilians, including a man and his son … and 4 unidentified soldiers,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
The attack also injured 15 others and caused the destruction of civilian and military infrastructure in the area, in the southwestern countryside of Hama, according to the Observatory.
Syria’s state-owned SANA news agency placed the death toll at five, saying the strikes also caused damage to a highway near Masyaf and sparked a wildfire.
“At around 23:20 on Sunday evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northwest Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region,” SANA said, citing a military source. “Our air defenses engaged the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its nearly 13-year civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias that support the Syrian army, such as Hezbollah.
While Israel rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold there.
The strikes have increased since October 7, when Palestinian Hamas militants launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israeli territory that has prompted significant retaliation.
Israel has carried out 65 strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 191 combatants and injuring 125 more, according to data from the Observatory.
