JERUSALEM, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Israel was reinforcing its troops along its northern border with Lebanon on Thursday, days after a fighter with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group was killed in a reportedly Israeli airstrike.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that "the Northern Command will be reinforced with select infantry forces."

The move was being made "in accordance with the situational assessment," the military said.

Hezbollah said one of its fighters, Ali Kamel Mohsen, was killed on Monday in an Israeli airstrike in Syria.

The attack near the Damascus International Airport killed five foreign fighters, according to a report by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It was the first time Hezbollah announced that one of its fighters had been killed in an Israeli attack since last August, when two Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli attack in Syria. Following the August attack, the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned Hezbollah will retaliate any more fatal attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a full-fledged war in 2006 that took place mostly on Lebanese soil. Enditem