The Israeli Air Force claimed that it eliminated the intelligence chief of Hezbollah for Syria in Damascus, in a strike on key infrastructure on Monday.
At least two Hezbollah members were killed near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, home to an important Shiite sanctuary and guarded by pro-Iranian groups, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes hit a house "used by members of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," on a farm in the Sayyeda Zeinab area.
Israel's military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since it launched its war on Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon more than a month ago.
Syrian state media also reported the strikes but said they only caused material damage.
"At approximately 5:18 p.m. (14:15 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting a number of civilian sites south of Damascus, which led to some material losses," the official SANA news agency said, citing a military source.
Mehdi Mahfouz, a 34-year-old resident of the area, said he "heard three successive explosions, one of which was very strong."
"Then I saw a large black cloud of smoke rising," Mahfouz added.
The blasts were heard in the neighboring Jaramana suburb of Damascus, according to an AFP photographer, as ambulances headed to the area.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Syria's defense ministry earlier said Israel targeted civilian sites south of the capital and had caused some damage.
Syrian and Western intelligence sources say Israeli attacks in Syria have killed numerous Hezbollah and pro-Iranian fighters based around the eastern outskirts of Damascus and to the south of the city.
Syria's foreign ministry condemned the strike, calling Israeli attacks on civilian areas "criminal" and urging U.N. members to take swift action in "halting Israeli aggression" and holding it accountable.
