Israel continues strikes on Hezbollah stronghold in Syria as it escalates bombing of Lebanon

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Israeli planes struck smuggling routes near the Syrian city of Qusayr, on the border with Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, a war monitor and other sources said, as Israel's aerial campaign aimed at degrading the Iran-backed group Hezbollah continues on both sides of the border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in the UK, said that the planes hit two smuggling routes, one of which included a bridge, near Qusayr, west of the provincial capital of Homs.

Members of a pro-Hezbollah Telegram group said that explosions were heard in the area. Lebanon's National News Agency NNA also reported at least one Israeli night air raid on the Lebanese side of the border.

There were no immediate reports of casualties and Syrian official media has not reported on the strikes.

Qusayr serves both as a weapons storage centre and a connection to Iran-backed militia and Hezbollah positions in Aleppo to the north, according to Waiel Olwan, senior researcher at the Jusoor Centre for Studies in Istanbul.

He said that “enormous” Israeli pressure on Hezbollah in Lebanon has forced the group “to depend on Syrian territory to manage the ground war”. Qusayr is also a transit point for Iranian cash flowing from the group.

“Qusayr constitutes basically a large security border area,” Mr Olwan said, expecting Israel at one point to embark on a sustained air campaign on Aleppo, another reservoir of Iran-linked fighters and weapons.

The Syrian military, together with Iran's auxiliaries, captured Aleppo from rebels in 2016, after the Russian warplanes bombed opposition areas of the city.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Iran has carved out a zone of control in Syria, turning it into a logistics, weapons development and manufacturing lifeline for Hezbollah, regional security analysts say.

Qusayr became an integral link in Iran's zone of control in Syria after Hezbollah captured the area from rebels in 2013, three years after Tehran started pouring proxy militias and other resources to support the government in Damascus in face of a pro-democracy protest movement, and later, an armed rebellion.

On Tuesday, the Washington Post quoted an anonymous American source as saying that Israel and the US are seeking assistance from Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to help stop cross-border supplies to Hezbollah. The source added that Mr Al Assad may be open to co-operation to limit Iran's powerful presence. Another Israeli source told the outlet that Washington would give the Syrian leader unspecified benefits if he turned against Iran.

Mr Olwan said that for years there has been chatter in Israel “of giving Al Assad a chance” but there were differences among Israeli political groups on whether he could be weaned off his dependence on Iran, given the extent of Tehran's influence in the country.

“At the same time, Israel does not want to hit Al Assad too hard, because it is not clear what the alternative to him would be,” Mr Olwan said.

Israel has carried out extensive air strikes in the Bekaa Valley since launching an all-out offensive against Hezbollah in late September, after a year of limited exchanges across Lebanon's southern border.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after its ally Hamas, another militant group supported by Iran, killed 1,200 people in the south of Israel on October 7. Israel retaliated by launching the war in Gaza, now in its 13th month, which has killed more than 43,391 Palestinians.