Two Israelis critically hurt in Hezbollah retaliatory attack on Golan, says ambulance service

Two people were critically injured when Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Golan Heights on Tuesday, Israeli's ambulance service said, as the Lebanese militant group retaliated after a former bodyguard of its leader was killed in an Israeli strike.

Israel's ambulance service said in a statement that paramedics had reported two casualties "in critical condition" after red alert sirens went off in the Israeli-occupied Golan. Israel's military did not confirm the casualties.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in Syrian territory on the Damascus-Beirut highway, killing one of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's former bodyguards, who security sources said was recently involved in transporting weapons for the Iranian-backed group.

Hezbollah said that it had fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the Golan Heights in retaliation. The Israeli military said 40 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into the Golan.

Hezbollah mourned former bodyguard Yasser Nimr Qarnabsh without elaborating on his role in the organisation. Two security sources said he had become a mid-ranking Hezbollah official involved in the transport of weapons.

Israel typically does not discuss attacks by its forces in Syria. When asked about the strike, an Israeli military spokesperson said: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media."

Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets along the border in support of Palestinians after its ally Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that precipitated the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate from areas around the border between the two countries.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Timour Azhari, Tala Ramadan, Steven Scheer and Hatem Maher; editing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)