JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli military said Sunday it had carried out ground air strikes in Syria and captured a Syrian national linked to an Iranian network. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced military activity inside Syrian territory.
Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement.
Israel has carried out multiple airstrikes in Syria over the past year, targeting members of Hezbollah in Lebanon and officials from Iran, a close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. However, it has so far not announced any plans for ground expansion into Syria.
The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “carried out in recent months,” but did not say when it occurred.
The airstrike revelations come as Israel has stepped up artillery fire in Lebanon over the past six weeks and waged ground incursions along the two countries’ shared border, vowing to annihilate Hezbollah, Israeli military officials said. said Saturday. Troops raided a town in northern Lebanon and captured a man described as a senior Hezbollah operative.
In a statement Sunday, the military did not say where or when the attack took place in Syria. Authorities identified the detained man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi and said he lived in the Saida region of southern Syria. The newspaper said the man had been under military surveillance for several months and was involved in Iranian plans to target areas near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Body camera footage of the attack released by the military showed soldiers grabbing a man wearing a white tank top inside the building. The military said the man was taken to Israel for questioning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday and said his country is trying to prevent Hezbollah from rearming through an “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria. Israel said the campaign in Lebanon was aimed at forcing Hezbollah from its borders and ending more than a year of shelling by the group in northern Israel.
More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon over the past year. Hezbollah projectiles killed 69 people in Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued operations in Gaza. In the southern Gaza Strip, at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, were killed when people gathered outside in eastern Khan Yunis were attacked by Israeli forces, Gaza Health Ministry emergency services said. did. The number was confirmed by the city’s Nasser Hospital, which received most of the bodies.
Palestinian officials said an Israeli drone strike struck a clinic where children were being vaccinated against polio in northern Gaza on Saturday, injuring six people, including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, head of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility. .
The World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency, known as UNICEF, are jointly running a polio vaccination campaign and expressed concern over the reported strikes.
“Reports of this attack are even more worrying because the Sheikh Radwan Clinic is one of the health facilities where parents can vaccinate their children,” said UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bohlen. Ta.
“Today’s attack occurred while the humanitarian moratorium was still in effect, despite assurances that it would be observed from 6am to 4pm.”
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said, “Contrary to the claims, an initial investigation determined that (Israeli forces) did not attack the area at the specified time.”
Failed to resolve conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for combat purposes, an allegation denied by Palestinian health authorities. Hamas fighters are also active in the north, fighting Israeli forces.
Northern Gaza has been surrounded by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year. Israel has carried out new attacks there in recent weeks, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands.
A scaled-back campaign to administer the second dose of polio vaccine began in some parts of northern Gaza on Saturday. It had been postponed from October 23, citing lack of access, Israeli bombing and mass evacuation orders, and a lack of guarantees for a humanitarian moratorium, the UN statement said.
The first doses were administered in September across the Gaza Strip, including the northern region, which is currently under complete lockdown. Health officials said the first wave of the campaign and second doses in south-central Gaza were successful.
At least 100,000 people have been forced to flee areas of northern Gaza towards Gaza City in the past few weeks, while around 15,000 children under the age of 10 have been forced to flee the inaccessible areas of Jabaliya, Beit Rahiya and Beit Hanoun. It remains in some northern towns. According to the United Nations
The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to give an estimated 119,000 children in the north a second dose of oral polio vaccine, but “access constraints limit the chances of achieving this goal.” is currently low,” the agency said.
They say 90% of children in all regions need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.
The campaign was launched after Gaza reported its first polio case in 25 years. The case was a 10-month-old boy who was currently paralyzed in his legs. The World Health Organization said the presence of paralyzed patients indicates there may be hundreds more people who are infected but are not showing symptoms.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. According to Gaza health authorities, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. It did not say how many were combatants, but said more than half were women and children.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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