Massive Israeli airstrike kills 68 in Syria

Bombings hit three positions in Palmyra used by Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian groups.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A series of Israeli airstrikes in eastern Syria killed at least 68 people Wednesday a Syrian opposition group said, making it the deadliest air attack attributed to Israel in Syria in years.

According to reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based anti-regime organization, Israeli warplanes carried out three airstrikes on positions occupied by Hezbollah terrorists and members of other pro-Iranian proxy groups Wednesday afternoon.

The airstrikes targeted Hezbollah and the Nujaba militia in the city of Palmyra, in Syria’s Homs district, SOHR reported, stating Thursday that the death toll from the strikes had risen to 68.

All 68 reported fatalities were combatants, SOHR claimed, including 42 Syrian nationals affiliated with pro-Iranian militias, five of whom were officers working in conjunction with Hezbollah.

The remaining fatalities include 4 Lebanese members of Hezbollah, and 22 other non-Syrian nationals, whom the report said were affiliated with the Nujaba Movement.

Forty-three others were injured in the strikes, SOHR reported, including 7 civilians.

Syria’s SANA state media outlet confirmed the attacks, claiming Wednesday that 36 Syrian nationals had been killed and more than 50 others injured.

“The Zionist entity committed a horrific crime in Palmyra today, which claimed the lives of 36 citizens and injured dozens of others in the air aggression carried out by Israeli aircraft, targeting a number of residential buildings and causing material damage to the buildings and surrounding area.” Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement to SANA Wednesday.

According to Syria’s defense ministry, 10 of the Syrian nationals killed in the airstrikes were soldiers in the Syrian army.

The Israeli military declined to respond to reports of the airstrikes.

SOHR claimed that the three airstrikes included a pair of bombings in Palmyra’s Al-Jam’iya quarter, striking a weapons depot and a building used by leaders of pro-Iranian militias.