Israel is carrying out an unprecedented wave of raids in Syria targeting trucks, infrastructure and people involved in arms transfers from Iran to groups in the region linked to its Tehran, asources told Reuters.

The sources, including a Syrian military intelligence officer and a commander in the regional alliance that supports Damascus, said Israel changed its strategy after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli soil and subsequent Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

Although Israel has hit targets in the past linked to Iran in Syriaincluding areas where the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is active, is now launching more frequent and deadlier airstrikes against Iranian arms shipments and air defense systems in Syria, the sources said.

The regional alliance commander and two other sources said Israel has now abandoned the unspoken “rules of the game” that characterized its previous strikes in Syria and appears to be “no longer reticent” about inflicting heavy casualties on Hezbollah there.

“They used to fire warning shots – hit near the truck, people would get out of the truck and then hit the truck,” the commander said, describing Israeli raids on weapons shipments handled by Hezbollah before Oct. 7.

“Now that’s over. They’re bombing everyone directly. They’re bombing to kill.”

The intensified air campaign has killed 19 Hezbollah members in Syria in three months — more than twice as many as in all of the rest of 2023, according to a Reuters count. More than 130 Hezbollah fighters were also killed by Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon during the same period.

The Israeli military did not respond to questions from Reuters about its escalating campaign. A senior Israeli official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah began this round of hostilities with attacks on Oct. 8 and that Israel’s strategy is paying off.

Asked last month about an alleged Israeli strike in Syria, Israel’s army chief said Israeli forces were working all over the region and were taking “whatever action is necessary” to show Israel’s determination to defend itself. of.

Israel began striking Iranian-linked targets in Syria years ago, but sources familiar with the strikes said it appeared to avoid killing Hezbollah members whenever possible.

An intelligence official in the region said Israel feared a high casualty figure could trigger retaliation from Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israeli villages across the border.

But with exchanges of fire now occurring on a daily basis following her attack October 7th, Israel is willing to be “less careful and less restrained in killing Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria,” the official added.

In a televised sermon on January 5, its leader Hezbollah Sayed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had lost “a number of fighters in Israeli bombings in Syria in various places over the past three months.”

“We had a formula before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (October 7) — if they killed one of our brothers in Syria, we would respond on the Lebanese front which was calm. Essentially, the terms of that formula have changed — why? Because the whole front is on fire now,” he said.

An Israeli drone strike on Dec. 8 killed three Hezbollah fighters who were possibly planning operations in northern Israel, and another strike in Quneitra in southern Syria targeted two Hezbollah fighters responsible for weapons shipments, the commander said. in the pro-Syrian coalition.

Another four were killed in late December in a strike on buildings and trucks used by Iran-linked paramilitary groups along Syria’s eastern border with Iraq.

The raids also hit Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria. A raid in early December killed two Guardsmen, and another on December 25 killed a high-ranking Guards associate who oversaw Syria’s military coordination with Iran.

“He would never have been killed before the new reality that came into effect after October 7,” said a source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking and operations in Syria.

Threat to Assad

Other strikes have hit infrastructure in southern Syria: an air defense base was hit on December 28 after an air defense system was also hit.

The Syrian intelligence officer said the strikes hit defense equipment before soldiers could even install it. Airports in the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, which Iran has used to transport weapons, are almost constantly out of service due to damage.

“Israel is saying to (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad: you allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to bring in weapons and fortify — so we’ll cut off your lifeline and you’ll be cornered,” the regional intelligence source said.

Israel has repeatedly said it does not seek a second war front in Lebanon or Syria.

Despite the build-up, the Syrian army — which was heavily dependent on Hezbollah and Iran while fighting rebels during the civil war — has not opened its own front.

“We don’t want to put ourselves in a situation of confrontation or open war with Israel,” the Syrian intelligence officer said.

Assad himself was discouraged from taking any action in support of Hamas after receiving threats from Israel, three sources with direct knowledge of the threat told Reuters.

Two of the sources said the threats of Israeli retaliation came from the United Arab Emirates. A UAE official said the claims were “baseless”. There was no response from Syria’s intelligence ministry to a Reuters request for comment on the allegations.

The third source said the message resonated with Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah took the threat seriously as it would have cost it everything it had built in Syria in recent years,” he said.