Amman: An anti-aircraft missile was fired at Israel from a Syrian air defence battery, according to an Israeli military spokesman early on Sunday. No casualties were reported from the Syrian missile, according to the spokesman Avichay Adraee, but the warplanes also attacked other nearby targets. 

Syria's air defences intercepted an Israeli missile attack across the country's central regions, according to earlier reports from the state-run SANA news agency, and most of the missiles were shot down.

According to a statement from the army, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that missiles that flew over portions of Lebanon's capital Beirut struck places close to the city of Homs, causing only physical damage.

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In order to stop Iran from using aerial supply lines to deliver weapons to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, Israel has increased its attacks on Syrian airports and air bases in recent months.

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According to Israeli military experts, the Israeli strikes are a part of an escalation of a long-running low-intensity conflict with the aim of slowing Iran's expanding encroachment in Syria.

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Since Tehran started backing President Bashar Assad in the civil war that broke out in 2011, its influence in Syria has increased.

Hezbollah and other Iranian allies now control parts of eastern, southern, and northwestern Syria as well as a number of the capital's suburbs.