BEIRUT: A war monitor said Israeli air strikes on Syria targeting positions of the army and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah killed three Iran-backed fighters on Friday.
“Israeli strikes have so far killed three pro-Iranian fighters and wounded about 10 others,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based war monitor said the strikes targeted “makeshift petrol stations affiliated to Hezbollah in the Homs countryside, and struck weapons depots belonging to the group as well as two Syrian army sites in the Hama countryside.”
The Syrian defense ministry said the attacks “wounded seven civilians.”
“At approximately 7:35 p.m. (1635 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northern Lebanon, targeting a number of sites in the central region,” it said.
Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and its Iran-backed allies.
The raids intensified after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked war in Gaza, then eased after an April 1 strike blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consular building in Damascus killing two generals of the Revolutionary Guard.
Tensions have risen again since the killings of two senior Iran-backed militants last month, which sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its allies, who blamed Israel.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.
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Monitor says Israel Syria strikes kill three pro-Iran fighters
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Monitor says Israel Syria strikes kill three pro-Iran fighters
- The Syrian defense ministry said the attacks “wounded seven civilians.”
Israel’s hostage forum releases AI-generated video of last Gaza captive
- The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling
JERUSALEM: An Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages released on Tuesday an AI-generated video of Ran Gvili, the last captive whose body is still being held in the Palestinian territory.
The one-minute clip, created whole cloth using artificial intelligence, purports to depict Gvili as he sits in a Gaza tunnel and appeals to US President Donald Trump to help bring his body back to Israel.
“Mr President, I’m asking you to see this through: Please bring me home. My family deserves this. I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” says the AI-generated image of Gvili.
Gvili was 24 at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
He was an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit and was on medical leave when he learnt of the attack.
He decided to leave his home and brought his gun to counter the Hamas militants.
He was shot in the fighting at the Alumim kibbutz before he was taken to Gaza.
Israeli authorities told Gvili’s parents in January 2024 that he had not survived his injuries.
The AI clip was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza.
The Forum said it was published with the approval of Gvili’s family.
“Seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is both moving and heartbreaking. I would give anything to hear, see and hold him again,” Gvili’s mother Talik said, quoted by the Forum.
“But all I can do now is plead that they don’t move to the next phase of the agreement before bringing Rani home — because we don’t leave heroes behind.”
The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.
In the first stage, Palestinian militants were expected to return all of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, militants have released 47 hostages.
In the next stages of the truce, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Florida later this month to discuss the second phase of the deal.
