At Least 10 Killed, Mostly Civilians, in Israeli Airstrikes on Western Syria

Attacks targeted warehouses near Lebanon border in Qusayr

At least 10 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 11 others were wounded in multiple Israeli attacks in and around the western Syrian city of Qusayr. The attacks targeted warehouses near the Lebanon border.

Israel’s military offered rare comment on the attacks, saying they targeted Hezbollah military warehouses in the area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which heavily tends to support Israeli allegations, offered their own similar statement, and claimed that three Syrians who worked for Hezbollah were among the 10 killed, with the rest being civilians.

There is, of course, hardly a city, town or village in Lebanon and the nearby parts of Syria that hasn’t been bombed by Israel in recent months, and when Israel does feel the need to try to justify that, they almost always claim Hezbollah buildings of some form or other were the intended target.

The US has sent officials to Israel in recent days to try to broker a ceasefire, though little progress seems to be made in that. Indeed, since Israeli attacks are escalating, if anything, many see this as a tacit rejection of the ceasefire in general.

Though Israel’s attacks have focused mostly on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip of late, they have continued to attack targets in Syria for years, and that number of attacks is also becoming more frequent as they escalate a regional war.

The attacks in and around Syria, as with most places, are taking a heavy toll on the civilian population. In general, Israel doesn’t discuss those strikes, saying they don’t comment on stories first reported by foreign media. The fact that they made a comment on these newest attacks on Qusayr is quite unusual, and may suggest they believe at least some of the victims were their intended targets, instead of just random bystanders.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.