IAF plane
IAF planeIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Israel bombed a weapons shipment headed for Hizbullah on Friday, an Israeli source confirmed Saturday. The source spoke after American media outlets reported the strike.

Israel has not officially commented on the alleged strike.

A diplomatic source in Lebanon told the AFP news agency that the operation destroyed surface-to-air missiles recently delivered by Russia that were being stored at Damascus airport.

The Israeli source confirmed that the strike targeted “game-changing” weaponry, but not chemical weapons.

Lebanon's army said pairs of Israeli airplanes entered Lebanese airspace three times overnight. The first two entered over the southern city of Sidon at 7:10 PM (1610 GMT), followed three hours later by a second pair that entered over Jounieh north of Beirut, a statement said.

The last pair flew in over the capital, the statement said, adding that the warplanes stayed in Lebanese airspace for two to three hours at a time

There were unconfirmed reports during the past week that Israeli planes had staged mock strikes in Lebanese air space..

US media reported that Washington does not believe Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace to conduct the strikes. A senior US official told NBC News that the air strikes were probably tied to delivery systems for chemical weapons.

White House and Pentagon officials declined to comment on the air strike reports.

But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was quoted as telling an audience that Israel had indeed bombed Syria.

"Israel bombed Syria tonight," Graham was cited by the Politico news website as saying in passing, without offering any further details.

If confirmed, this would be the second Israeli air strike on Syria this year.   Earlier this month, Israel implicitly admitted carrying out a January raid on a weapons convoy in Syria thought to be en route to Hizbullah.