DAMASC, Syria (AP) – Israeli warplanes fired several missiles into central Syria early Friday, killing a family of four, including two children, and injuring four others, state media reported.
Separately, the Israeli army said it dropped a drone that had crossed Israel from Lebanon. It was not said how the plane crashed. There was no immediate notification from the Lebanese side, but the militant group Hezbollah has sent drones into Israeli airspace in the past.
Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military officer as saying the missile attack took place shortly before dawn when Israeli warplanes flew over neighboring Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the reports on Friday. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on Iran-related military targets in Syria over the years. But he rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations.
The Syrian military official said the attack was aimed at several targets in and near central Hama province. He added that Syrian air defense units fired most of the missiles.
The official said the strike killed a family of four, including parents and two children. The strike also injured four other people, including two children, and destroyed three houses at the western end of the provincial capital Hama, SANA official said.
State TV said the family that died had been displaced by the nearly ten-year conflict in Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group that monitors the Syrian civil war, said the strikes targeted five sites for backed fighters for Iran based in the positions of the Syrian army.
He said the sites were destroyed, adding that parts of one of the anti-aircraft missiles fell on a residential area, causing casualties among civilians.
It was Israel’s first strike in Syria since President Joe Biden took office.
Tensions have been rising in the Middle East in recent weeks around the anniversary of the US assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last January.
Last week, Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes in eastern Syria, apparently targeting positions and weapons depots of Iran-backed forces. According to monitors, at least 57 fighters were killed and dozens were injured.
The Observatory said it recorded 39 Israeli attacks on Syria in 2020 that hit 135 targets, including military sites, warehouses and vehicles.
Israel considers Iranian entertainment on its northern border a red line and has repeatedly hit Iran-linked weapons facilities and convoys destined for Hezbollah. The latest attacks also come amid intensified low-altitude Israeli warplane missions in the Lebanese sky that have caused nervousness among residents.
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Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Fares Akram in the Gaza Strip contributed to this report.