Israeli Air Force jets carried out multiple strikes in the Syria-Lebanon border region on Monday night, Lebanese news outlets reported.
According to reports, the IAF bombed two targets at around 10 p.m. on Monday night. Residents of the Lebanese towns of Al-Nabi Shayth, Janta and Yahfoufa in the Baalbek region of the Bekaa Valley, located very close to the border with Syria, reported hearing aircraft and explosions. There were also reports of numerous secondary explosions and fires breaking out.
"We heard warplanes followed by explosions, it could be along the border with Syria," Jaafar al-Musawi, head of the Al-Nabi Shayth municipality, told Lebanon\’s Al-Jadeed TV.
There were various reports on what the targets of the alleged airstrikes were, including Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, a Hezbollah rocket base or an arms convoy traversing the Syria-Lebanon border. It is as of yet unclear what the targets actually were or where precisely the strikes took place.
Three people were reportedly killed, and at least 10 were wounded, in the strikes.
The porous border between Lebanon and Syria is frequently used by fighters and smugglers to move people and weapons between the two countries. Hezbollah is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad\’s regime.
Lebanese media reports said there was noticeable IAF activity in the skies of Lebanon on Monday, both before and after the alleged strikes.
Since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israeli officials believe Hezbollah has restocked its arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, some of which are capable of striking virtually anywhere inside Israel.
While Israel has tried to stay out of the war in neighboring Syria, it has repeatedly warned that it would act to thwart the transfer of advanced weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Over the past year, the Israeli military has reportedly carried out strikes inside Syria to halt such transfers. Israel has never officially confirmed the strikes.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Sunday that Iran was "handing out torches to pyromaniacs," hinting at the supply of Iranian weaponry to Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military official said in comments published on Tuesday that, in order to boost its own defense capabilities against the U.S. and Israel, Iran has analyzed Israeli strikes during the Second Lebanon War.
Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads a unit in charge of civil defense, said Iran sent a team to Lebanon and collected 5,000 photos of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes during the Second Lebanon War and changed its defense plans accordingly. His comments were published in the conservative Iranian daily Kayhan.
He said Iran has built underground facilities and spread out its installations and forces.