UN Saw Israeli Drones Before Airstrike on Hezbollah Fighters in Syria

An Israeli security source told AFP that an Israeli helicopter carried out the strike but the UN account raised the possibility that drones may have been used.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN observer force in the Golan on Sunday "observed two unmanned aerial vehicles flying from the Alpha (Israeli) side and crossing the ceasefire line."

"An hour later, smoke was observed coming from the general direction of position 30," Haq told reporters.

UN peacekeepers then saw the drones flying over the area of "position 30" and again crossing the ceasefire line, he added.

"The incident is a violation of the 1974 agreement on disengagement" between Israel and Syria, he added.

“The Israeli enemy's helicopters fired missiles at a group of Hezbollah fighters who were inspecting the town of Mazraat al-Amal in the Syrian Quneitra region,” a Hezbollah statement, made public on TV channel Al-Manar’s website, read Sunday.

Hezbollah later announced the names of its fighters killed in the attack, among them a top military leader, and Jihad Mughniyeh also known as “Jawad,” the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah commander assassinated by Israel in a 2008 airstrike targeting his car in Syria.

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered on Monday afternoon in Beirut's southern suburbs to attend the funeral of Jihad Mughniyeh, who was buried in Beirut alongside his father.

The four other Hezbollah casualties were identified as: “Sayyed Abbas” Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi; “Kazem” Mohammed Ali Hassan Abu al-Hassan; “Daniel” Ghazi Ali Dawi; “Ihab” Ali Hassan Ibrahim.

Iran confirmed Monday that a general of its elite Revolutionary Guards died in the strike.

"General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) forces were attacked by the Zionist regime's helicopters," a statement on the Guards' website said.

Damascus has repeatedly accused so-called “rebel groups” such Syria’s al-Qaeda branch, al-Nusra Front, who are active in the southern Quneitra countryside, of working hand in glove with Israel, from which they receive logistic support
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Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, then annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Quneitra is located in the “demilitarized” zone of the Golan Heights. The zone is supposedly monitored by UN peacekeepers since 1974, but has been a site of heavy clashes between the Syrian army and jihadist groups.

The attack came days after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against any “stupid” moves in Lebanon and Syria, emphasizing the movement’s increased military capabilities and vowing to retaliate and make sure Israel pays the price for any aggression against the neighboring countries.

In the past year, Israel has reportedly carried out a number of raids allegedly targeting key Syrian targets and positions of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, an ally of both Syria and Iran.

In December, the Syrian government accused Israel of launching a series of airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus saying the strikes caused material damage to institutions in the area.

The Syrian foreign ministry said at the time it had asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel, describing the strikes as "a heinous crime against Syria's sovereignty."

Observers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) confirmed in a report published in December documenting cooperation and coordination between the Israeli army and militant groups in Syria.

The report revealed ongoing communication between armed groups’ leaders and Israeli army officers, saying that “59 meetings took place from March 2013 to May, and that during this same period 89 injured militants were transported to Israeli hospitals, and 19 of them were returned to Syria along with two bodies.”

The UNDOF report also said that observers witnessed several meetings between rebel leaders and Israeli army forces between December 2013 and March 2014, in addition to witnessing the transportation of injured militants to Israeli hospitals following confrontations between the militants and the Syrian army near the occupied Golan border.

On December 1, Israeli TV Channel ۲ reported that “more than 449 wounded Syrian rebels” have received medical treatment at the Nahariya hospital, and in November Israeli website Walla reported that “Poriya Hospital has treated 124 wounded from Syria so far.”

In March, Israeli warplanes attacked Syrian army positions just hours after a bomb wounded four Israeli soldiers on the Golan.

Last February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a field hospital in the annexed Golan Heights for wounded Syrian rebels.

In October, an exposé by Israeli political commentator Ehud Yaari confirmed an existing relationship between the two sides.

The Israeli writer also spoke about an “undeclared truce” between Israel and Nusra Front, which so far have not engaged in any clashes with the Israeli army.