Avoid bombing near Syrian position, Russia warns Israel
- Last updated: November 14, 2024 | 09:15
Russia has asked Israel to avoid launching aerial strikes as part of its war against Lebanon's Hizbollah near one of Moscow's bases in Syria, a top official said on Wednesday.
Syrian state media in mid-October claimed that Israel had struck the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar Al Assad, who is supported by Russia and in turn backs Hizbollah.
Latakia, and in particular its airport, is close to the town of Hmeimim that hosts a Russian air base.
"Israel actually carried out an air strike in the immediate vicinity of Hmeimim," Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy in the Near East, told the RIA Novosti press agency.
"Our military has of course notified Israeli authorities that such acts that put Russian military lives in danger over there are unacceptable," he added.
"That is why we hope that this incident in October will not be repeated."
Israel has carried out intensive bombing of Syria but rarely targets Latakia, to the northwest of Damascus.
An Israeli attack targeted the area of Qusayr in the southern countryside of Homs province in central Syria, Syria's state media said on Wednesday.
Syrian media said that air defences intercepted "hostile" targets over the Homs countryside.
The Sana news agency said that "the Israeli aggression" on the Homs region had been met with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
An Israeli strike on a home in northern Gaza killed three siblings aged 6 and under, among at least six people killed in airstrikes in the war-ravaged territory, Palestinian medics said. In Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building south of Beirut on Wednesday killed at least six people and wounded 15, the Health Ministry said.
Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, as Lebanon waited to hear Washington's latest ceasefire proposals after a US official expressed hope a truce could be reached.
Hizbollah said Wednesday that it had fired missiles targeting a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv in central Israel.
In a statement, Hizbollah said that it had fired a salvo of rockets at Glilot military base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel's main commercial hub.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,365 and injured 14,344 since 0ct.7 2023, the Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday.
It said 78 people were killed and 122 wounded on Tuesday.
Israel's new defence minister told senior military commanders Wednesday there would be no easing-up in the war against Hezbollah as he toured the northern border with Lebanon.
"We will make no ceasefires, we will not take our foot off the pedal, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of our war objectives," Israel Katz said on his first visit to the border region since his appointment.
US top diplomat Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Israel to implement "real and extended pauses" in fighting in Gaza to allow for aid deliveries, as a US-imposed deadline to improve conditions in the territory expired.
Blinken said Israel had taken multiple steps to address the humanitarian crisis ahead of the deadline set by outgoing President Joe Biden's administration - but that more was needed.
"We need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it," Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels.
Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike on a home in northern Gaza killed three siblings aged 6 and under.
They were among at least six people killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday in the war-ravaged territory, where Israel has been at war with Hamas for more than 13 months.
The Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service says the three children were killed in a strike on a home near a clinic in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, where Israel has been waging an offensive for over a month.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group has released a new video showing an Israeli hostage who has been held in Gaza for over a year.
Agencies