An Israeli drone strike near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a Syrian businessman who was close to President Bashar Assad and sanctioned by the United States, as reported by pro-government media and an Iran-backed official. The victim, Mohammed Baraa Katerji, was in his SUV on a highway connecting Lebanon to Syria when he was killed. Katerji had been involved in funding the Syrian resistance against Israel in the Golan Heights and had ties to Iran-backed groups in Syria, which might have made him a target.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Katerji in 2018 for allegedly acting as Assad’s intermediary in oil trading with the Islamic State group and facilitating weapons shipments from Iraq to Syria. Katerji and his brother, known as the “Katerji brothers” in Syria, entered the oil business a few years after the conflict began in 2011. Israel has been conducting strikes in Syria against Iranian-linked targets for years, but these actions have rarely been officially acknowledged. The frequency of these strikes has increased in recent months amid the conflict in Gaza and ongoing clashes with Hezbollah along the Lebanon-Israel border.

In another incident, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza resulted in the deaths of a baby and his grandmother in an apartment building in Deir al-Balah. A man in the street was also killed, and at least six people were injured. Footage showed the chaos and devastation following the strike, with ambulances rushing wounded individuals to hospitals. The total number of casualties in Gaza continues to rise, with the ongoing conflict causing immense human suffering and tragedy.

Furthermore, a suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the Red Sea as a new American aircraft carrier approached the region. The ship was hit by uncrewed small craft and missiles fired by crewed vessels. While the Houthis did not immediately comment on the attack, they have previously targeted vessels in the region, claiming to aim at ships linked to countries supporting Israel or involved in the conflict with Hamas. The situation in the Red Sea remains volatile due to these ongoing attacks.