Overnight, Israeli missiles targeted two air defense bases in southern Syria, according to a war monitor on Tuesday. This comes amid heightened tensions on Israel's northern border following a fatal rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that there were no casualties from the strikes in Daraa province, which borders the ceasefire line between Syrian and Israeli forces on the Golan. Syria's state media did not mention any strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised a "severe" response to the Saturday strike, which resulted in the death of 12 young people in a Druze Arab town on the Golan. "The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe," he declared during a visit to Majdal Shams on Monday. His visit was met with protests, following a gathering of mourners in the town to bury the last victim, 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim.
Israel and the United States have accused Lebanon's Hezbollah movement of the attack, which has engaged in near-daily exchanges with Israeli forces since the conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted in Gaza last October. Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib mentioned that diplomatic efforts are underway to manage the expected Israeli retaliation. "Israel will escalate in a limited way and Hezbollah will respond in a limited way... These are the assurances we've received," Bou Habib stated in a Lebanese media interview.
