ISRAELI JETS HIT TARGETS ON LEBANON-SYRIA BORDER

Beirut, 25 Rabiul Akhir 1435/25 February 2014 (MINA) – Beirut has reported that Israeli warplanes on Monday have launched airstrikes on targets near the border between Lebanon and Syria.

There were contradictory reports on the targets of Monday’s attacks, with sources in Lebanon saying the airstrikes hit inside Syrian territory. Israeli sources, however, claimed that the warplanes bombed a target in Lebanon, Press TV reporter as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Israel violates Lebanon’s airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes. The Lebanese government has filed several complaints to the United Nations over the violation of the country’s airspace by the Israeli military aircraft.

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Israel has carried out strikes on Syria several times since the beginning of 2013. Damascus says the attacks were aimed at helping the foreign-backed militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

On January 30, the Syrian army said two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a research center in Jamraya, near Damascus.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. Over 130,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the unrest.

According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — namely Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

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Israeli warplanes also targets in and around Gaza City, destroying the Interior Ministry several days ago. Two days of Israeli air strikes have killed at least 19 Palestinians, including 17 civilians, among them six children and a pregnant woman.

The latest upsurge in the long-running conflict came on Wednesday when Israel killed Hamas’ military mastermind, Ahmed Jabari, in a precision air strike on his car. Israel then began shelling the coastal enclave from land, air and sea.

Israel has said it will stop its offensive action in the Gaza Strip during a three- hour visit by the Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil to the territory later on Friday, a senior Israeli government official said. (T/P04/E01)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)