BEIRUT: Lebanese leaders, both political and religious, denounced Thursday a recent Israeli airstrike on a military target in Syria.

Hezbollah said the attack revealed Israel’s “motives toward [unrest] in Syria over the past two years and the criminal thinking aimed at destroying Syria and its army and eliminating its pivotal resistance and rejectionist role to pave the way for unfolding the chapters of a major conspiracy against [Syria] and against our Arab and Muslim peoples.”

Foreign officials and Syrian state TV said Wednesday Israel had conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria, denying claims that the strike had targeted a convoy heading from Syria to Lebanon.

President Michel Sleiman said Israel was exploiting the unrest in Syria for its own interests.

“Israel is using the ongoing situation in Syria to implement its aggressive policies, overlooking international treaties and humanitarian rights and norms,” Sleiman said in a statement Thursday, according to the president’s office.

Israel has not confirmed or denied any involvement in the alleged strike.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also criticized as “unacceptable” Israel’s air raid on Syria.

“Any attack on any Arab territory by the Israeli enemy is rejected,” Siniora said in a statement.

Vice President of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan said the Israeli strike “once again reveals the extent of the conspiracy against Syria, its people, army and institutions.”

Qabalan called on the U.N. Security Council, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation "to take a firm stance to deter Israel from its aggression and hold it responsible for the consequences of this aggression.”

The Amal Movement of Speaker Nabih Berri said the attack “constitutes an Israeli intervention in the Syria conflict with the aim of sabotaging every opportunity to resolve this crisis.”