A crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria’s Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28 [Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images]
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 people, mostly civilians, were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes on Syria’s Qusayr region bordering Lebanon, where Israel said it hit Hezbollah weapons depots.
The Britain-based war monitor said three strikes targeted the town of Qusayr, where Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway, and surrounding areas, later reporting further strikes on the area.
One strike targeted “a weapons depot and a fuel storage facility for Hezbollah in the industrial city of Qusayr”, killing seven civilians and three Syrian fighters working for the Lebanese group, the Observatory said.
At least 11 other people were wounded, it said, adding that the other strikes targeted warehouses near the Lebanese border and a bridge south of Qusayr.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said “weapons depots and headquarters used by” Hezbollah were hit in the Qusayr region.
Adraee said the strikes sought to thwart attempts to “transfer weapons from Iran via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon”.
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported Israeli strikes on Qusayr’s industrial zone and some residential neighbourhoods, saying they caused material damage.
The vast land border between Israel and Syria has increasingly come under attack by Israel since its war with Hezbollah erupted last month.
The main border crossing, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side, was put out of service by an Israeli strike this month.
A second crossing that connects Lebanon to Qusayr was put out of service last week by another Israeli strike.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of bringing weapons in from Syria using the land crossings which have become a key escape route for thousands of people fleeing the war in Lebanon.
There are six official crossings between Lebanon and Syria, but several illegal routes also exist along the porous border.
