Escalation in Southern Syria and Lebanon

Israeli forces shelled a hilltop near the town of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside late on Wednesday, according to witnesses — Syria’s Alikhbariah TV reported separately that soldiers had also raided and searched a house in the village of Taranja in the Quneitra countryside.

Al Jazeera’s Amr al-Halabi, reporting from Damascus, said the shelling of the strategic Bat al-Warda hill near Beit Jinn comes amid repeated Israeli attacks on the town in recent months. These include an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town on Saturday; a ground raid in the town last year killed at least 13 people, including children.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Israeli forces launched air attacks on the town of al-Mansouri in the Tyre district late on Wednesday, as well as on the town of Sarbine in the Bint Jbeil district earlier in the day, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Diplomatic Efforts and Continued Tensions

The latest strikes came days after Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shaibani met Israeli intelligence officials in Jordan for talks mediated by the United States in what Damascus described as a bid to end the continued Israeli “attacks, arrests and targeting operations” inside Syria.

Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes on Syria since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024; it has also deployed troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that for decades had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

Tensions have further escalated after Israel’s military bombed a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border, claiming that Turkiye had been seeking to establish a military presence there. Both Damascus and Ankara deny the allegations.

Impact on Lebanon and Political Reactions

Israeli artillery fire also hit Wadi Zibqin in the Tyre district, while air strikes hit the towns of Beit Lif and Yater, the NNA reported. Israeli forces also continued to demolish property across southern Lebanon, including in Hula in the Marjayoun district, while large explosions were heard from the towns of Bayt al-Sayyad, Baraachit and Majdal Zoun.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health says the Israeli campaign has killed 4,350 people and wounded 12,310 since March 2. The continued strikes have renewed debate in Beirut over the “framework” agreement Lebanon signed with Israel in June, which envisages a phased Israeli withdrawal in exchange for the deployment of the Lebanese army and the disarmament of armed groups, a reference to Hezbollah.

President Joseph Aoun defended the negotiating track on Wednesday, saying it remained the option that would spare Lebanon “the horrors of war”, despite what he called delays and obstacles. Political analyst Khaldoun Al-Sharif told Al Jazeera that Lebanon had met its commitments under the first ceasefire agreement reached with Israel in 2024; that agreement ended hostilities triggered by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

But Al-Sharif said Israel has continued strikes on Lebanon and demolitions of Lebanese homes without any consequences from the US. “More than 10,000 violations, and they haven’t lifted a finger,” he said, adding that it was Washington’s responsibility, not Hezbollah’s, to press Israel to scale back.