Israel hit 50 targets in Syria and 300 across Gaza in 2020, IDF says

The Israeli Air force hit 50 targets in Syria in 2020, an annual statistics report by the IDF says. Most of the strikes targeted Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah or Iranian-backed military units in Syria.

The latest strikes were carried out on Wednesday morning as the Israeli Air Force targeted an aerial defense battery west of Damascus. The strike killed at least one of the soldiers inside and injured three others, Syrian state media reported.

The Jewish state has consistently vowed to prevent its arch-enemy Iran gaining a foothold in Syria, where Tehran has backed President Bashar al-Assad throughout the nearly decade-long war.

The report released on Thursday also revealed that 300 targets in Gaza were hit by IAF during the past year.

Gazans fired 176 missiles at Israeli towns and villages, only one-tenth of the attacks in 2019. The low total was a result of no rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas. However, the Israeli Army did expose a terrorist tunnel, dug by Hamas, along the Gaza border.

The stone-throwing incidents in the West Bank increased marginally in 2020 with 1500 recorded instances, up from 1469 in 2019.

On Tuesday, Hamas and other armed groups staged military exercises in Gaza, including firing rockets into the sea, to mark the anniversary of the start of the 2008 conflict.

On the Lebanese border, the Israeli army thwarted two attempts by Hezbollah to carry out attacks into Israel. In addition, an operation by a Hezbollah cell to carry out an attack on the Syrian border was also prevented.

A rare occurrence for a country that keeps its military operations private, the IDF report did not offer any details on the targets hit. Classified figures pertaining to its naval operations and special ops units also remain under wraps.