BEIRUT, November 26. /TASS/. Israel has delivered airstrikes on two settlements in the Homs governorate in central Syria, the SANA news agency reported.

According to the agency, the strikes were delivered on villages in the north and west of the governorate. No further details were provided.

The Syrian mass media reported earlier that several explosions had been heard near the city of Homs, the administrative center of the governorate of the same name.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On September 23, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Northern Arrows against the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, carrying out massive airstrikes on its military targets. On the night of October 1, Israel announced the start of a limited ground offensive in the border areas of southern Lebanon.