An Israeli attack targeted the area around Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Thursday, the Syrian Defense Ministry and state media announced, in a context marked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “Today at around 11:05 p.m. (20:05 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out airstrikes from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting targets in the southern region,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement, without naming casualties.
“Our air defense intercepts enemy targets near Damascus,” the official Syrian agency SANA wrote earlier. “An Israeli attack targeted the surrounding area of the capital Damascus,” state television added. Israel rarely comments on attacks on Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran, which supports President Bashar al-Assad's government, to expand its presence there.
Increase in attacks
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attacks targeted a Syrian air defense position in the Sweida region in the south and around Damascus International Airport. The attack near the airport came 24 hours after flights resumed, which had been suspended since an Israeli attack in late November, just hours after reopening following similar attacks the previous month, said the London-based NGO, which reported on a has a large network of correspondents in Syria.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on its northern neighbor since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, mostly targeting Iranian-backed forces, including Lebanese Ayatollah fighters, as well as army positions. Syrians. But since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, it has stepped up its attacks as tensions rise in the Middle East.