Airstrikes killed several soldiers near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early Friday, Syrian state media and an independent group said, in one of the heaviest Israeli attacks in the country in years.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors Syria’s civil war, said the dead included 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah fighters and one Syrian from pro-Iranian militias. The group said the attack appeared to have hit several targets, including an arms depot belonging to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia backed by Iran that has a presence in Syria.
The airstrikes fueled fears that have unsettled Western officials for months: that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza could escalate into a wider conflict against Syria, Iran and its proxies in the region, which could to involve allies of those involved, such as Russia and the United States.
US officials have tried to ease tensions and Iran has tried to rein in its militia network after a drone fired by one of the groups killed three US army reservists in January. But fears of a wider conflict remain as Israel and Hezbollah have clashed for months along the border and as Israel has carried out attacks on Iran-linked targets in Syria.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes in Syria on Friday, but its defense minister, Yoav Gallad, appeared to hint at responsibility.
“We will pursue Hezbollah wherever it operates and expand the pressure and pace of attacks,” he said on social media, promising more operations in Lebanon, Syria and “other more remote locations.”
Iran supports and arms a network of militias fighting Israel, including Hamas, whose political leader was in Iran for high-level meetings this week. Attacks across the borders of Lebanon and Syria have escalated since October 7, when Hamas led a sweeping raid on Israel and the country responded with heavy shelling and later a ground invasion of Gaza.
The Israeli military said this month that its forces had struck more than 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon since October 7. The attacks, he said, had killed more than 300 Hezbollah members, although this could not be independently confirmed. Hezbollah’s official website and spokesman said “more than 200” of its fighters have been killed so far.
On Friday, Syria’s official state news agency SANA did not specify the death toll in what it described as an Israeli attack. It said several civilians and soldiers were killed or injured in raids on several locations near Aleppo around 1:45am.
In a separate incident, Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli drone strike targeted a car in southern Lebanon, killing at least one person.
The Israeli military confirmed it carried out that strike, which it said killed the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of the man, Ali Abdulhassan Naim, on Telegram, but did not elaborate on the circumstances.
Mr. Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, praised the strike, calling it “another successful assassination of a Hezbollah commander.”
The Israeli army and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire along the border for months, displacing tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis from their homes.
On Thursday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission was deployed along the border said in a statement that it was deeply concerned about the increase in violence, which has killed many civilians and destroyed homes and livelihoods.
Israel has come under increasing international pressure over the war in Gaza in recent days: on Monday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, and on Thursday the UN’s highest court ruled, in its sharpest language yet, that the Israel must ensure “unimpeded aid delivery” to Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday authorized a delegation to travel to Qatar and Egypt in the coming days for talks on a possible ceasefire. But it remained unclear whether Israel would reschedule another delegation’s trip to Washington, as the White House said it was trying to do, after Mr Netanyahu’s decision to delay the group in response to the US abstention from the Security Council vote.
In response to the UN court’s ruling, Israel said on Friday it was committed to its legal obligations to provide aid to Gazans and would promote “new initiatives” to do so. Israel has supported a handful of aid efforts in the past month, including a ship carrying food from Cyprus, air flights from foreign countries and crossings into northern Gaza with a small number of aid trucks.
But progress in efforts to increase deliveries has been slow, and aid groups say the current level is not nearly enough to meet the huge need in the enclave.
Despite mounting pressure on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli leaders have vowed to continue pursuing their goal of destroying Hamas, in Gaza and beyond.
Israel has already targeted Hamas officials outside the territory, most notably killing Saleh al-Aruri, a top Hamas leader, in early January in an explosion in a Beirut suburb, according to officials from Hamas, Lebanon and the United States . Israel has not claimed responsibility for his murder.
Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out raids and targeted killings in the country, which Israeli officials have said are aimed at crippling military capabilities and supply lines for Iranian-backed proxy forces.
Throughout the war, Iran and Hezbollah supported Syria’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad, with fighters and military support. Israel views the influence and military build-up of these forces as a threat to its northern border.
In a further complication for Israel, Russia is also backing Mr al-Assad. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel needs the goodwill of President Vladimir V. Putin to help contain Iran and continue to strike targets in Syria while trying to avoid damaging the forces Russia maintains there.
According to Russian state news agency Tass, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the raids on Friday, calling them a “flagrant violation” of Syria’s sovereignty and international law. The strikes, he said, were “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences” in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Relations between Russia and Israel have already been strained since the war, and Mr. Putin has emerged as an outspoken critic of Israel. Its ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, told the Security Council last week that Russia is guided by “what is necessary for the Palestinian people and what helps promote peace.”
Friday’s bombing was at least the second deadly attack in Syria in less than a week. On Tuesday, airstrikes in eastern Syria killed several people. Iran’s state media said Israel was responsible, while Syria’s state news agency attributed it to US forces. A Pentagon spokeswoman denied that the United States had carried out the strikes.
Tuesday’s raids killed a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Iranian state news reports. A World Health Organization engineer was also killed in the raids, the agency said.
Jonathan Rice and Adam Rasgon contributed to the report.
