Israel kills Islamic Jihad member, three others near Syria-Lebanon border

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it killed a "significant" Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area, while a monitor of Syria's war reported four dead in the incident.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement that three of its fighters "from the Syrian arena" were killed, while Lebanon's Hezbollah issued a statement saying a fighter was killed, without specifying where.

The Israeli air force "struck and eliminated... a significant terrorist in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation's operations division, in the area of the Syrian-Lebanese border," an Israeli military statement claimed.

The operative was "responsible for the development of the Islamic Jihad's operational plans in Syria and Lebanon", the statement said, adding he had played "a central role" in recruiting Palestinians for Hezbollah, which is also an ally of the Palestinian Hamas group.

"Additional Islamic Jihad terrorists who were on their way from Syria to carry out terrorist activities" in Lebanon for Hezbollah were also "eliminated" in the strike, the statement said.

Israel has been waging a deadly war in the Gaza Strip for over 10 months, killing over 40,000 Palestinians. The military onslaught has triggered heightened tensions in the region, with Israel exchanging near-daily cross-fire with Hezbollah, and targeting armed groups allied with Hamas.

Since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters. Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the country's civil conflict, said four people were killed in the incident.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said the attack occurred on Wednesday morning "near a Syrian regime checkpoint on the Damascus-Beirut road" as it was heading towards Lebanon.

Syrian state media have yet to report the incident.

The Israeli military statement said that Hezbollah "has been systematically recruiting Palestinian operatives to advance and direct terrorist activity" against Israel from Lebanon.

Strikes claimed by or blamed on Israel have targeted vehicles in the Syria-Lebanese border area several times since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

A Lebanese security source had said an overnight Israeli air strike hit a lorry loaded with Hezbollah missiles in eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border.

The Israeli military did not claim the strike.