Israeli aircraft violate Syrian airspace with air defences staying silent

Israeli aircraft violated Syrian airspace and flew heavily over two southwestern provinces on Saturday without being confronted.

Syrian air defences did not counter the aircraft flying over Quneitra and the western Daraa countryside, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Mohammed Al-Hourani, a media activist, told The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that there was ongoing Israeli air movement near the Syrian border, with the frontier sometimes being violated.

It wasn't known whether the breaches were intended to send "specific messages" to the regime or came in the context of intensified Israeli air activity towards southern Lebanon in recent days, with Israel comfortable the Golan Heights front is safe and there is little risk if its aircraft enter Syrian airspace.

The Syrian Golan Heights has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Lebanon's health ministry said three people were killed in separate Israeli strikes on south Lebanon on Sunday.

Hezbollah on Sunday announced two fighters had been killed, without specifying where they died.

Early on Sunday, it said it fired dozens of rockets at military production facilities and an air base near the north Israel city of Haifa.

An Israeli airstrike on Friday killed the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, in a densely populated suburb of Beirut, an attack that the Lebanese health ministry said left 45 dead.

"With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer," United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging fire following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 41,431 people, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

Hospitals, places of worship, and residential buildings have been attacked, and South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide at the International Court of Justice, the UN's top tribunal.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has prompted an international groundswell of popular solidarity with Palestinians.

Agencies contributed to this report.