Israel strikes Syrian govt position in south — NGO

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Israeli government struck a Syrian military position in the war-torn country's south, a war monitoring NGO said on Wednesday.

"Sounds of explosions rang out in the province of Quneitra after an Israeli strike against a Syrian army position," said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a vast network of sources in the country. 

The sound of explosions also rang out in the Golan Heights, the NGO said, without specifying their source.

The strike in Quneitra caused material damage, the organisation said, and has not yet been mentioned by official Syrian media. 

The raid coincides with an announcement by the Israeli army on X, formerly Twitter, of strikes against "terrorist positions" of Hezbollah -- an ally of the Syrian regime and enemy of Israel -- in Lebanon, which borders Golan. 

Since the start of the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, exchanges of fire between Hezbollah militants and the Israeli army have likewise increased around the Israel-Lebanon border area. 

Clashes there have left at least 18 people dead on the Lebanese side.

Most of the dead have been combatants, including 10 Hezbollah fighters, but they also include a Reuters journalist and two civilians.

On the Israeli side, at least three people have been killed.

On October 10, for the first time since the Hamas surprise attack, the Israeli army announced that it had fired shells into Syria from the Golan Heights -- in response, it claimed, to projectiles being fired on the territory, occupied by Israel since 1967. 

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted the Aleppo airport, injuring five people and putting the airport out of service. 

Previous Israeli raids on October 12 targeted the airports of both Aleppo and the capital Damascus -- both controlled by the Syrian government -- rendering them inoperable, according to state media. 

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow its arch-foe Iran, which supports Damascus, to expand its footprint there.