Syrian opposition sources reported on Wednesday that following an alleged Israeli strike on a military post near the border on Tuesday, the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning the Syrian military to cease cooperating with Hezbollah.
The leaflets, which were dropped on Syrian military positions, singled out Hajj Jawad Hashem, the head of Hezbollah’s “Golan File” in Syria, Israel’s Kan news reported.
“Aiding Hajj Hashem will bring ruin upon you,” the leaflets state, adding, “Their [Hezbollah’s] evil intentions have been exposed. You are responsible for your own actions and Hezbollah is responsible for your suffering.”
The leaflet goes on to state that Hashem and his forces are known to be conducting visits to military sites in southern Syria, including the site hit on Tuesday, with the aim of upgrading their surveillance capabilities. Hezbollah, it continues, has turned the Syrian military into a puppet, warning that Syrian military personnel need to take care, as their actions are being closely monitored.
At the bottom of the leaflet is an image of an ostensible Hezbollah vehicle at the military site that was hit by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday.
Syrian state media reported on Tuesday night that the IDF had struck a target near the town of Hader in the northern Quneitra Governorate. Hader lies just east of the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams. No casualties were reported.
The U.K.-based war-monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has activists on the ground in Syria, reported that the target of the strike was a military post near Hader used by both regime forces and Iranian militias. The strike sparked a fire at the outpost, according to SOHR.
This is not the first time that Israel has dropped leaflets warning Syrian military forces operating near the border against cooperating with Hezbollah. In January, a day after Syrian state media reported Israeli airstrikes in southern Syria, a Syrian opposition website published a picture of what it claimed was one such leaflet, ostensibly dropped before the strike and addressing by name the commander of the Syrian Army’s 112th Brigade, Basil Abu Eid.
Hajj Hashem has also reportedly previously been named in such warnings.
In line with its established policy, the IDF did not comment on the reports.
