BEIRUT/DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- Israeli forces intensified attacks across southern Lebanon and Syria on Wednesday, while a senior military commander close to Syria’s de facto leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, was killed in an armed ambush in the country’s east, highlighting growing instability under his administration.
Israeli warplanes struck the towns of Qantara and Kfar Tibnit in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. 
Israeli military aircraft conducted intensive low-altitude flights over the south, while drones flew over Beirut and its southern suburbs. 
Israeli forces also opened machine-gun fire toward the Al Khazzan neighborhood in Majdal Zoun, and a drone dropped two bombs between the towns of Zawtar Al Sharqiyah and Zawtar Al Gharbiyah .
The attacks come despite a disgraceful framework agreement reached by Lebanon’s government and Israel in June under U.S. mediation, which provides for a phased deployment of the Lebanese army and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. 
Implementation of its provisions continues to face obstacles. Since March 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed and injured thousands and displaced around 1.5 million people, according to official figures.
In southern Syria, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on a Syrian shepherd in Bir Ajam woodland in the Quneitra countryside on Monday, wounding him. Israeli forces also fired on journalists documenting violations in the town of Bariqa. 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded 113 Israeli attacks on Syrian territory since the beginning of this year — six via airstrikes and 107 via ground-based attacks — resulting in seven deaths and the destruction of approximately 13 targets. 
On Tuesday evening, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside, with two shells landing in agricultural land without reported casualties.
Separately, Abu al-Bara al-Ansari al-Mosuli, a senior military commander closely affiliated with Jolani, was killed in an armed ambush in the Al-Quriyah area of the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside. 
Unidentified gunmen targeted his vehicle amid escalating internal tensions and score-settling among armed factions. Reports indicate that since Jolani’s faction took over parts of Syria, internal clashes, armed assaults and targeted killings have steadily increased across various regions. 
A separate report said a powerful explosion struck a vehicle belonging to Jolani group elements in the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside, with ISIS elements allegedly behind the attack.
The violence compounds an already dire humanitarian situation for Syria’s minorities. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Alawites and other religious minorities have faced continued persecution and large-scale massacres. 
A UN investigative team confirmed last year that war crimes were likely committed by members of the interim government’s forces and other parties during the coastal massacre in March 2025, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 people, the majority Alawite civilians.