Israeli strike cuts off Syrian highway linking Damascus and Homs

Syria's main highway linking Damascus and Homs was temporarily cut off after an Israeli strike targeted an aid gathering centre for displaced Lebanese south of the city of Homs, the Syrian regime’s news agency SANA reported on Monday.

SANA reported that an Israeli attack targeted the Chenchar area of southern Homs province in central Syria.

War monitors from the Syrian opposition told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that an Israeli drone fired several rockets at a convoy of trucks on the Homs-Damascus highway belonging to pro-Iran militias operating in Syria.

Iraqi security sources also told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that US drones had intensified their activity in Iraq’s western province of Al-Anbar, which borders Syria, in order to monitor pro-Iran Iraqi militias moving weapons and fighters to Syria.

Israel is carrying out near-daily airstrikes on Syria, claiming to target commanders and fighters from Hezbollah and other pro-Iran factions.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike on the town of Sayyidah Zainab south of Damascus killed nine people, including women and children, and injured 14 others.

One of the victims was identified as Ali Mousa Daqdouq, the Hezbollah commander responsible for the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

A low-level conflict broke out between Hezbollah and Israel on 8 October 2023, one day after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel and the beginning of the ongoing war on Gaza.

Israel dramatically escalated this into a full-scale war on Lebanon on 23 September this year, killing top Hezbollah leaders including Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, as well as thousands of civilians.

An estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, with over 400,000 seeking refuge in Syria.

Most of these are Syrians who originally fled their country following the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

Reuters contributed to this report.