Multiple airstrikes by Israel reportedly killed between 17-19 Iranians and Iranian-proxies in Syria and at the Syria-Iraq border over the weekend.
In a very rare case, the air force purportedly killed at least six Iran-backed terrorists at the Syria-Iraq border, two members of Iraqi militia groups told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Although Israel has frequently attacked Iranian proxies in Syria for years, and at a faster rate during the current war, the number of cases in which Israel attacks near the Iraqi border is very small, due to diplomatic sensitivities.
Hours before the Associated Press report, the Hezbollah terrorist organization announced that four operatives within their ranks were killed by Israeli attacks around the same time, which states that they were among the six that were killed in eastern Syria. The other two were reportedly Syrian fighters, the Iraqi militia members said.
Arab media also reported that airstrikes were carried out against sites identified with pro-Iranian militias in the Boukamal region of Syria near the Iraq border. Some of the reports, such as the Lebanese source Al-Mayadeen, state that the airstrikes have been attributed to Israel.
The attacks hit a weapons depot, a militants’ convoy that had arrived from Iraq to Syria, and a training complex belonging to the pro-Iranian militia, according to The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights. The Observatory states that the number killed at the border is actually nine, saying that three of them were Syrian nationals.
At first, the Observatory also said that that strike was done by US forces, but later it identified Israel as the attacker.. The organization also said that the "death toll is likely to increase due to the presence of more than 27 injured members of the militias."
The Associated Press report stated that the attack on the border came hours after an "umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants — known as the Islamic Resistance — claimed an attack on a US military base in the city of Irbil in northern Iraq." The militant group has conducted attacks on over 100 US positions in Iraq and eastern Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
In a separate incident, 11 senior Iranian officials were killed in an airstrike targeting Damascus International Airport on Thursday evening, Saudi media reported the following morning.
The commander of the Revolutionary Guards in eastern Syria, Nur Rashid, was injured in the airstrike, Saudi media channel Al-Hadath reported.
These Iranian officials were reportedly at the airport to meet with high-ranking delegates.
IRGC spokesman Sardar Ramzan Sharif denied on Friday reports that 11 of its leaders were killed in an airstrike in Damascus International Airport the night before, Iranian media quoted them as saying, as he said that such claims are "baseless."
Other strikes on Syria
Other strikes on Syria this week, foreign media also claims were done by Israel.
Syrian media also claimed on Thursday evening that Israel had targeted sites in southern Syria and near Damascus with airstrikes in two separate waves. Syrian air defenses were activated in the Damascus area during the strikes. The country's media quoted one Syrian military source as saying that the alleged airstrike carried out by Israel came from the "occupied Syrian Golan Heights."
Earlier this week, Iran vowed that Israel would "pay" for the killing of Sayyed Reza Mousavi, another IRGC commander who was killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike last Monday in the vicinity of Damascus.
Shortly after the strike that killed Mousavi occurred, footage on social media showed smoke near the Damascus airport, as Iranian proxies have often used the location.
Regarding the Lebanon border, the government announced that its official evacuation policy was extended for two months until the end of February.
It was unclear what the full ramifications would be of the decision, but it likely delays any major change in the current daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
The IDF's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on X on Saturday that about 80% of Hezbollah rockets launched from Lebanon that day fell within Lebanese territory.
Adraee then attacked the terror organization for violating UN resolution 1701 and called on them to stop using the Lebanese people as hostages.
"In response to his attacks, we continue to strike Hezbollah’s positions and its deployment in #South_Lebanon, which will never be the same as it was before October 7."
This came the same day as a drone attack struck the Mount Dov area, which Lebanon claims as its territory.
Israel struck Lebanese territory in response, destroying infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah also announced that four of their operatives were killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, on Saturday.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, between 130-160 terrorists have been killed in Lebanon, most connected to Hezbollah, but some to Palestinian terror groups.
There were extensive attacks by both Hezbollah and Israel against each other over the weekend as the escalation between the sides continued since last week.
Meanwhile, the IDF raided a Hamas military headquarters base belonging to the terrorist group's military intelligence chief in Khan Younis on Saturday.
The raid was carried out by the IDF's 7th Brigade and the Givati Brigade.
The Hamas military intelligence commander is responsible for all the intelligence operations of the terrorist organization in the area.
During the raid, Israeli forces also uncovered the location of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad headquarters.
The Givati Brigade also raided many Hamas infrastructures in the area and eliminated terrorists who were preparing to attack Israeli forces through sniper and tank fire.
The brigade carried out several attacks using aerial vehicles in which armed terrorists were eliminated and targets such as a weapons production site and another stronghold for the terror organization were also destroyed.
Also, as a preliminary step before the entry of ground forces, the IDF's 98th Division, in cooperation with the IAF, carried out about 50 airstrikes on a variety of targets which included underground targets and terrorist infrastructures.
Also, the IDF's 14th Reserve Brigade combat team located and destroyed one of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's hiding places in recent weeks, an apartment located in Gaza City, the IDF announced on Friday evening.
An investigation revealed that a tunnel shaft was located on the apartment's basement floor, where Israeli forces discovered a tunnel that was used by the terror organization.
The apartment is part of a long and branching network of tunnels that were constructed by the terror organization, where senior members moved and operated, an IDF spokesperson said.
Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.