Tel Aviv - Israel "is active from time to time in Syria", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, in one of his most explicit comments yet on reported Israeli airstrikes there.
He said the activity was aimed at preventing the neighbouring state from becoming a military front against Israel.
Iran, which is one of Syrian government's staunchest allies, is trying to create such a front against Israel on the Syrian-controlled side of the strategic Golan Heights plateau, Netanyahu charged.
Israel's military actions were preventing the transfer of weapons from Syria to Lebanon and "this we will continue to do", he told a conference in the northern Israeli town of Acre.
According to media reports, Israel launched a strike in southwestern Syria, near the border with Lebanon, at the weekend. Casualties among fighters of the Lebanese radical Shi'ite Hezbollah movement were reported.
A similar strike was reported last week in the same area, seen as a major transit point for Hezbollah fighters and logistical equipment to and from Syria.
An Israeli army spokesperson in Tel Aviv said the military was not commenting.
Hezbollah and Israel are arch enemies. During the 2006 second Lebanon war, the movement launched thousands of missiles in Israel. It has since rearmed and tens of thousands of missiles remain pointed at Israel, Israeli officials say.
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