At least 14 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes targeting several military sites in central Syria, according to the Syrian state news agency, Sana.
A hospital director in Hama province reported that 43 others were injured in the attacks near Masyaf on Sunday night.
A UK-based monitoring group earlier stated that at least four soldiers and three civilians were among the dead. The strikes reportedly destroyed military and scientific facilities where Iran-backed armed groups were present.
The Israeli military has not commented on the foreign media reports but has previously acknowledged conducting hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, targeting locations it claims are linked to Iran and allied militias.
Reports suggest that Israeli air strikes have intensified since the Gaza war began in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups based in Lebanon and Syria.
Sana cited a Syrian military source as saying that Israeli aircraft flying over north-western Lebanon launched missiles at “a number of military sites in the central region” at around 23:20 local time (20:20 GMT) on Sunday.
“Our air defence shot down some missiles,” the military source added.
The news agency reported that the strikes also caused damage to a local highway and that a fire broke out in the Hair Abbas area.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which monitors the conflict in the country through a network of sources on the ground, reported that “13 violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centres in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present”.
It was reported that three civilians in a car and four unidentified soldiers were killed in the attacks.