Israel ‘kills two Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in drone strike in Syria’, in move that could increase Middle East tensions after Tehran president’s helicopter crash death

Israel is believed to have killed two fighters from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in a drone strike in Syria – a move that could heighten tensions in the Middle East following the death of Tehran’s president in a helicopter crash.

The drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the city of Qusayr in Homs province, a war monitor in the region said.

This is the third Israeli attack on Hezbollah targets in Syria in about a week.

Israel killed eight pro-Iranian fighters on Monday in an attack in the Qusayr area, which is close to the Lebanese border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Another attack on May 18 targeted “a Hezbollah commander and his companion,” but there were no casualties.

And on April 2, the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus was targeted, killing seven people, including a top commander and his deputy.

Israel rarely comments on individual attacks in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.

Attacks have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.

Today’s rocket attack comes as Israel also bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just one day after the UN’s highest court ordered the IDF to halt its military operations in the southern city.

The bombing came as efforts began in Paris to reach a ceasefire in the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanded the immediate release of all hostages still held by Palestinian militants, hours after the Israeli army announced that troops had recovered the bodies of three more prisoners from northern Gaza.

The Hague-based court, whose orders are legally binding but have no direct enforcement mechanisms, also ordered Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which it closed earlier this month at the start of the attack on the city.

Israel gave no indication that it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting that the court had gotten it wrong.

“Israel has not and will not conduct military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a joint statement with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. spokesperson for the ministry.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the International Court of Justice ruling on Rafah but criticized the decision to exclude the rest of war-torn Gaza from the order.

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week that the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation to “continue negotiations on the return of the hostages.”

CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet Israeli representatives in Paris in an effort to restart negotiations, a Western source close to the matter said.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron received Qatar’s prime minister and the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday “to urge a ceasefire,” Cairo said.

The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The five countries discussed “the effective implementation of the two-state solution,” it added.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to reach a ceasefire as quickly as possible and reopen the Rafah crossing, Washington said.

Palestinian witnesses reported Israeli attacks in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.

“We hope that the court’s decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination, because there is nothing left here,” said Oum Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City who has been sent to Deir by the war. -Balah is displaced.

‘But Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. That’s why I don’t believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than through violence,” said Mohammed Saleh, also in the central Gaza Strip city.

Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, further delaying sporadic aid deliveries to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.

But on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a call with his US counterpart Joe Biden to allow UN aid through the other entry point to southern Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, the White said House.

The US military has also installed a temporary jetty on the Gaza coast to receive aid by sea. A UN spokesman said they had delivered 97 trucks of aid after a “difficult start” a week ago.

The security and humanitarian situation in the area remains alarming, with a risk of famine, hospitals decommissioned and around 800,000 people having fled Rafah in the past two weeks, according to the United Nations.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said the situation had reached “a moment of clarity”.

“Aid workers and UN staff must be able to carry out their work safely,” he posted on social media site X on Friday evening.

“At a time when the people of Gaza are facing famine… it is more important than ever to heed the calls made over the past seven months: release the hostages. Agree to a ceasefire. End this nightmare.”