Hezbollah fighters during a military parade in Saida, southern Lebanon, in 2019. (Credit: AFP archive photo / Mahmoud Zayyat)
Two Hezbollah members were killed early on Sunday in an Israeli strike targeting a truck in Syria, near the border with Lebanon, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in the country in 2011, mainly targeting groups close to Iran, including Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian regime, as well as the Syrian army. These strikes have multiplied in the context of the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"Israel fired a missile at a truck near the Syrian-Lebanese border in an area between the provinces of Homs and the suburbs of Damascus," the Observatory reported. The strike resulted in "the deaths of at least two Hezbollah members," it added.
Syrian state media did not report the strike. However, Hezbollah announced the deaths of two of its fighters "on the road to Jerusalem," the formula used to pay tribute to its members killed in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon since Oct. 8.
The two fighters killed were identified as Ahmad Mohammad al-Aafi, born in 1980 and originally from Brital, in the Bekaa, and Hussein Ali al-Dirani, born in 1986 and originally from Qsarnaba, also in the Bekaa.
According to L'Orient-Le Jour, these two deaths bring to 214 the number of Hezbollah members killed by Israel since Oct. 8. The count includes 21 fighters killed in Syria and 193 in Lebanon
Damascus and its suburbs are regularly targeted by Israeli strikes, most recently on Wednesday when a residential building in the capital was hit, killing three people, including a Syrian and two foreigners, according to the Observatory.
On Feb. 10, the Observatory reported the deaths of three people in Israeli strikes targeting a building west of Damascus, in an area where "the Lebanese Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian groups are present."
Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has announced the deaths of at least 14 fighters killed by Israeli fire in Syria.
The Israeli army reported on Feb. 3 that it had "attacked more than 50 Hezbollah targets" on the ground and in the air in Syria since Oct. 7.
Israel rarely comments on its strikes in Syria, but it has repeatedly indicated that it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.