Two Syrian civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike near Damascus early Tuesday, Syrian state media said.
The incident was the fourth airstrike attributed to Israel on targets in Syria in less than a week, and came a day after the Israeli Air Force shot down a suspected Iranian drone in Israeli airspace.
“At 12:15 am, the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike… and the attack ended in the deaths of two civilians,” Syria’s state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.
According to the report, the attack came from the direction of the Golan Heights and targeted several locations around the capital Damascus and the “southern region”.
SANA had previously reported “heard an explosion near Damascus”.
Other air strikes attributed to Israel over the past week have hit targets near Damascus and the central province of Homs.
Five soldiers were wounded in one of the recent attacks near the capital, and two were injured in another, Syrian media said. Other airstrikes over the past month have hit Aleppo International Airport, temporarily closing its runway.
According to some reports, the series of airstrikes could be linked to last month’s suspected Hezbollah terrorist attack near Megiddo in northern Israel, which Jerusalem believes was carried out by a terrorist who climbed the Lebanese border fence with a ladder crossed. A man was seriously injured in the attack.
The Israeli military does not usually comment on specific attacks in Syria, but has admitted that over the past decade it has conducted hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups trying to gain a foothold in the country.
The IDF says it is also attacking arms shipments believed to be destined for these groups, most notably Hezbollah. Additionally, air strikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
FILE: An IAF F-15I fighter jet of the 69 Squadron takes off from Hatzerim Air Force Base in southern Israel during a pilots graduation ceremony June 22, 2022. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
On Monday, a military source said Iran appears to be behind the launch of a drone shot down over Israeli airspace this week.
The interception came shortly after Iranian state media reported that an Iranian adviser wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Syria over the weekend had died of his wounds. He was the second Iranian adviser allegedly killed by Israel in the airstrike.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday warned Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah that Israel will not tolerate any efforts to harm the country or its citizens.
“We will not allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to harm us. We have not allowed it in the past, we will not allow it now or in the future,” Gallant said. He also accused Iran of anchoring its presence on Israel’s borders.
“If necessary, we will push them out of Syria to where they belong. And that is Iran,” Gallant added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday: “In the last few days we have moved outside our borders against regimes that support terror and plot our destruction.”
Israel regards Iran as its greatest enemy, citing the country’s hostile rhetoric, support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah, and its suspected nuclear program. Iran denies Western accusations that it is aiming for a nuclear bomb.
Also last week, Greece announced the arrest of two Pakistani agents allegedly planning an attack on a Jewish center in Athens. Israel said Iran was behind the plot.
Separately, a rare car bomb attack rocked Damascus on Sunday with no fatalities reported and neither side claiming responsibility.
AFP contributed to this report.