BEIRUT, September 27. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces attacked a Syrian military facility on the border with Lebanon, the Syrian Defense Ministry reported.

"Around 1:35 a.m. local time (10:35 p.m. GMT on September 26), the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the occupied Golan Heights, attacking one of our military facilities on the Syria-Lebanon border near the settlement of Kfeir Yabous in the Rif Dimashq Governorate" the ministry said in a statement published on the ministry's Facebook (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation deemed extremist by the Russian authorities).

According to the statement, five Syrian servicemen were killed in the attack and several others were injured. The exact number of those wounded was not specified.

The day before, Syria’s SANA news agency reported that at least eight people were injured in an Israeli strike on the Matraba border crossing on the Syria-Lebanon border. According to the news agency, the injured are workers at the border crossing, which was operating normally at the time of the shelling. The shelling also caused material damage.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as retaliation for the aggressive actions taken by Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, launching air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria before starting a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave.

Tensions escalated between Israel and Lebanon’s Shia group Hezbollah after a series of explosions of communication devices in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. The movement held Jerusalem responsible for the sabotage. On September 23, Israel launched Operation Arrows of the North against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, carrying out massive attacks on the Shia group's military installations. The stated goal is to create a secure environment in Israel's northern border areas so that tens of thousands of residents can return there. They were evacuated because of the constant shelling that Hezbollah units have been carrying out since October 8.