Israeli strikes on Syria kill 38, including 5 Hezbollah members PHOTO

Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria's Aleppo province early on March 29, stepping up its campaign against Iran's proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza.

According to Syria's defence ministry, Israeli strikes hit several areas in the southeastern part of Aleppo province around 2245 GMT on March 28, killing a number of civilians and military personnel.

Three security sources told Reuters that 33 Syrians and five Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the strikes. One of the Hezbollah fighters was a local field commander whose brother had been killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon in November, one of the sources said.

The Israeli military said on March 29 that it had killed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah's rocket and missiles unit, in an airstrike in the area of Bazouriye in Lebanon.

Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria against both the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) since the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, and in recent days its pilots have resumed regular practice for "deep" raids into Lebanon.

Tehran and its proxies have entrenched themselves across Syria, including around Aleppo and the capital Damascus. Israel and Hezbollah have also been trading fire across Lebanon's southern border in the biggest escalation since they fought a month-long war in 2006, as Hezbollah has tried to show its support for Hamas with volleys of rockets into Israel.

About a dozen Israeli troops and half a dozen civilians have been killed in northern Israel, while nearly 270 Hezbollah fighters and 50 civilians including medics, civilians and journalists have been killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.