Monitor says Israel hits air defence bases in Syria

Israeli missiles struck two air defence bases in southern Syria overnight, a war monitor said Tuesday, as tensions surge on Israel’s northern border after a deadly rocket strike on the annexed Golan Heights.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported no casualties in the overnight strikes in Daraa province, which abuts the armistice line separating Syrian and Israeli forces on the Golan.

Syria’s state-run media did not report any strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a “severe” response to Saturday’s strike, which killed 12 youths in a Druze Arab town in the Golan.

“The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe,” he said on a visit to the town of Majdal Shams on Monday.

He was greeted by protests during the visit, which came after mourners gathered in the town to bury the last victim, 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim.

Israel and the United States have blamed the strike on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the war in Gaza between Hamas militants and Israel began in October last year.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said a flurry of diplomatic activity has sought to contain the anticipated Israeli response.

“Israel will escalate in a limited way and Hezbollah will respond in a limited way… These are the assurances we’ve received,” Bou Habib said in an interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed. (BSS/AFP)