40,000 Arab fighters gather near occupied Golan Heights to support Hezbollah - report

Thousands of militia fighters and mercenaries from three Arab countries have reportedly arrived near Syria's occupied Golan Heights to aid Hezbollah in its ongoing war with Israel, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Around 40,000 fighters had come to Syria from "a number of countries, including Iraq, Yemen and Syria", the report claimed, citing unnamed sources in the Israeli military. 

The fighters were reportedly within "the vicinity of the Golan Heights" waiting for orders from Hezbollah's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, to join the fighting, the daily said, without citing any evidence to support the claim by the Israeli military source.

"They're not elite fighters, but neither is the Nukhba Force, and nevertheless we saw what a force of 2,000 to 3,000 gunmen can do when they surprise and attack a community," the daily said, referring to the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.

"If the need arises, we will also act in Syria to make it clear to [President Bashar] Assad that we are no longer accept their presence there," the daily cited an unnamed senior defence official as saying.

So far, Damascus, Hezbollah, and Tel Aviv have not released any official statements regarding the claims made by the report.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border attacks since 8 October 2023, in what the Lebanese group says was a "support front" to Palestinians in Gaza, where over 41,400 people - mostly civilians - have been killed by Israel's brutal offensive on the besieged enclave.

Israel announced it was expanding its war on Hezbollah by targeting Lebanon more widely.

It carried out a wave of deadly and indiscrimiante strikes since Monday, killing over 500 people, including 50 children and 95 women, in 24 hours - the largest daily death toll in modern warfare, according to the New York Times.