Israeli strike hits Hezbollah truck near Lebanese-Syrian border killing one fighter

An Israeli strike hit a Hezbollah truck near the Lebanese-Syrian border on February 29 killing at least one fighter, a security source familiar with the Iran-aligned group told Reuters.

Israel has been carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran's weapons lifeline to its proxies in the region, sources with direct knowledge of the matter had previously told Reuters.

The sources said Israel had shifted strategies following the October 7 rampage by Hamas fighters into Israeli territory and the ensuing Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

A day earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least two people in Lebanon’s south while Hamas fighters earlier fired a volley of rockets towards northern Israel from Lebanon amid escalating cross-border clashes in recent days.

“Enemy warplanes raided the towns of [Seddiqine] and Kafra… killing two people from the town of Kafra and injuring 14,” Lebanon’s state-run national news agency (NNA) said.

Since October 8, Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon’s southern border in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a devastating assault on Israel on October 7. Palestinian groups in Lebanon have also occasionally claimed attacks. They have been demanding a ceasefire in Gaza where more than 30,000 people have been killed in four months of relentless Israeli bombardment.

A strike in January, which a United States defence official said was carried out by Israel, killed Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and six others in south Beirut – the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed during the war.

The escalating cross-border exchanges since October 8 have stoked fears of all-out war on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.