Israel Bombs Syria; Is it Targeting Hezbollah Aid or Helping ISIS?

Israel conducted two airstrikes in government-controlled regions of Syria in Damascus on Sunday, the Syrian state media has said.

The Syrian state-owned television on Sunday said that Israeli military had bombed areas near the Damascus International Airport and in the Syrian-Lebanon border town Dimas.

"The Israeli enemy attacked Syria by targeting two safe areas in Damascus province, namely the Dimas area and the area of Damascus International Airport," Al Ikhbariya TV station reported on Sunday. "The Israeli enemy committed a heinous attack by targeting two peaceful areas in the Damascus countryside".

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a series of explosions were heard near Dimas.

The allegations against Israel come just after a United Nations report that blamed Israel of being in contact with Syrian rebels, including the Islamic State.

The Syrian government later released a statement accusing Israel of supporting "terrorists", Al Jazeera reported.

The Syrian army reportedly said that the strikes were meant to "raise the morale of terrorist organizations, including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS".

Israel has conducted several airstrikes in Syria since 2011, when the anti-Assad uprising began, but the two Middle East countries have been in a state of war since 1948.

Most of Israel's targets have been shipments of arms and missiles that it suspected were being transported to Lebanon to aid the Hezbollah movement.

According to Jeff White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Israeli strikes on Sunday were for similar reasons. "This is part of an Israeli pattern where, when they see a shipment of destabilizing arms going to Hezbollah, they strike," he told The Washington Post.

However, the Syrian government and military think otherwise.

"This direct aggression by Israel was carried out to help the terrorists in Syria, after our armed forces secured important victories in Deir Ezzor, Aleppo and elsewhere," the army reportedly said.

The Sunday strikes came after the Islamic State had failed to seize a government airport in Deir el-Zour over the weekend, the Post reported.

The recent report by UN observers submitted to the United Nations Security Council has also accused Israel of being in contact with the likes of the Islamic State militants and Nusra Front members.

The report said that Israel had treated several Syrian fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.