This Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016 photo shows an Israeli Air Force F-15 plane in flight in the Hatzerim air force base near Beersheba, Israel.

:: Syria’s army said Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed two people at a military facility in the country’s west, a zone where the regime has been accused of developing chemical weapons.

“Israeli warplanes at 2:42am today fired a number of missiles from Lebanese air space, targeting one of our military positions near Masyaf, which led to material damage and the deaths of two members of the site,” the army said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya’s correspondent in Palestine said the Israeli strike targeted a center for manufacturing missiles and chemical weapons, adding that the base usually manufactures S60 missiles which are transferred to Hezbollah.

He added that the center was about to be transformed into a factory to manufacture precision rockets for Hezbollah noting that Iran has sought to establish factories to make Hezbollah ballistic and precision missiles.

Naval base

Masyaf is a town in western Syria, approximately 60 kilometers east of the coastal city of Tartus, where regime ally Russia maintains a naval base. Syria’s army operates a military facility north of Masyaf that includes a training camp and a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC).

The United States has accused the SSRC of developing the sarin gas weapon allegedly used in a chemical attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun in April, which left dozens dead.

On Wednesday, United Nations war crimes investigators announced they had an “extensive body of information” indicating Syrian warplanes were behind the attack.

Syria’s army did not mention the SSRC in its statement. The government has blasted accusations of chemical weapons use in Khan Sheikhun as “fabrications”. Since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011, Israel has conducted several air strikes on the war-ravaged country.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speaks next to Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon during a visit to Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights near the Israel-Syria border February 4, 2015.