Syria’s Aleppo Province saw the deadliest Israeli attacks in years on Friday, when Israeli warplanes hit multiple targets in the Aleppo countryside and targeted a Hezbollah warehouse near Aleppo’s airport.
So far, at least 42 people were reported killed in the Israeli attacks, 36 of them Syrian soldiers and 6 members of Hezbollah. The toll is likely to rise, however, as civilians were also reported slain and do not appear in the final count. Dozens of people were also reported wounded.
Israel declined comment on the killings in Syria, saying they do not comment on reports of their strikes from the media. They did however claim to have killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit in a separate attack on southern Lebanon.
Israel has been in a series of attacks and retaliatory attacks against Hezbollah virtually since the war in the Gaza Strip began. It is not unusual for them to try to limit Hezbollah’s access to weapons with attacks in Syria, but this was an unusually deadly strike.
Syria’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that a number of civilians were killed in the attacks and property was damaged. They did not offer numbers but at least two civilians were reported to have been slain on Thursday, before the big attacks really started.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the attacks as both a violation of international law and a violation of Syrian sovereignty. They called on the international community to join in condemning the Israeli aggression.
Analysts are speculating that Israel wanted to reaffirm their willingness to further escalate tensions in the north despite growing international calls for peace and mounting isolation. Trying to keep Hezbollah from getting any further weapons in the lead-up to a potential war was likely also a big motivator.
It’s not clear, however, how seriously the damage to a single warehouse would limit Hezbollah’s ability to smuggle weapons into Lebanon, and if anything the deaths of several of their members in the Syrian attacks will probably motivate more retaliatory rocket fire against the Israeli north.