Israel resumes air raids on Syria-Lebanon arms routes

Some weapons still reaching Hezbollah despite fall of Bashar Al Assad, security official says

Rescuers search for survivors after an Israeli air strike in Shmestar, a village in the Bekaa Valley, in November. AFP

Israeli planes struck targets on the border between Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and Syria on Sunday evening and into Monday, Israeli and Syrian sources said, in a resumption of raids that had curbed weapon flows to the militant group Hezbollah in the year before Bashar Al Assad's downfall.

Mr Al Assad's removal on December 8 resulted in the withdrawal of pro-Iranian forces from Syria, largely halting crucial logistical support and supplies from Tehran to Hezbollah through corridors running from Syria's border with Iraq to its Lebanon frontier.

But security gaps remain and some border criminal gangs are still operating, selling arms to Hezbollah or other weapon-smuggling rings in Lebanon, said a Syrian security official linked with Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the group now in control in Damascus.

He told The National the strikes targeted routes between the Hirmel area of Lebanon and outlying areas in Syria's Homs governorate, where Hezbollah had built up storage facilities and recruited local networks in its build-up of control over the area.

"There is a much-reduced stream of smuggling left but we have seen Israel going after even micro-shipments in the last months before the regime fell," the official said.

HTS has avoided confrontation with Israel and has concentrated on internal affairs and securing outside support for the country's recovery since its takeover of Syria late last year.

Its ascendancy has upended international relations across the Middle East, weakening Russian influence along with Iran's expansion. Although Israeli officials had urged caution, Arab countries that had ended hostilities with Mr Al Assad are now dealing with the new rulers in Damascus, as well as the European countries that had started to engage with him in recent years.

Last month, Israel mounted incursions into Syrian territory in the Golan Heights west of Damascus, expanding a buffer zone that had existed since an armistice in 1974.

The Israeli military said it was continuing "to act to remove any threat to the state of Israel and will operate to prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to rebuild its forces in accordance with the ceasefire understandings”, the military said.

Its latest strikes were on weapon-smuggling outposts along the Syria-Lebanon border, as well an unspecified military site and a rocket launcher, Israeli media reported.

The Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in October halted a year-long war between the two sides, which broke out after Hezbollah attacked northern Israel in October 2023, in support of Hamas, another militant group backed by Iran.

Lebanese official media reported Israeli air strikes in the Janta area of the Bekaa Valley and in the Nabatieh region to the south.

HTS troops last week swept through several of the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains separating Lebanon from Syria, arresting 20 members of former auxiliary forces set up by the Hezbollah regime. A number of warehouses left by Hezbollah, containing M-16 rifles, hand grenades and ammunition, were seized.