Nearly two-dozen people are dead in Syria after a wave of Israeli air strikes on Iranian and Syrian targets.  

CGTN's Stephanie Freid reports from Tel Aviv. 

Israel said Wednesday it struck dozens of Iranian targets in a "wide-scale" operation in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights one day before. 

Syrian state media reported two civilians were killed, but a war monitoring group said at least 23 people died.  

The exchange of fire along the increasingly tense frontier comes as Iran and its allies face blowback across the region, with mass protests against Tehran-aligned governments in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as demonstrations in Iran over a recent hike in fuel prices. 

Israel has repeatedly struck Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years and has warned against any permanent Iranian presence on the frontier.