Israeli jets struck Syria late Tuesday, the latest attack attributed to Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Arab media reported.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said several civilians were killed and wounded in an Israeli strike on the Homs neighbourhood. Israeli warplanes launched their missiles from an area north of Lebanon’s Tripoli, hitting several targets in Homs and surrounding areas.
In addition to casualties, both public and private property was damaged.
Local sources told Reuters that the attack targeted several Syrian army outposts and an airbase near Homs, while a Syrian military intelligence source familiar with the matter said the attack targeted the Shayrat airbase.
Local radio station Sham FM reported that the wealthy neighbourhood of al-Malaab and Hamra Street were hit. It said Israel also struck farmland in al-Waer, causing fires, but there were no casualties.
State television showed ambulances rushing to the site of the strike, where debris and wreckage of the struck building lay strewn about. Reuters could not confirm the location of the site. The Israel Defence Forces did not comment on the reports.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Israel has stepped up a years-long campaign of airstrikes aimed at curtailing the presence of its nemesis Iran in Syria, attacking both Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israel across the Lebanon-Israel border since 8 October.
The war erupted when the Iranian-backed Hamas group launched a massive offensive on 7 October, killing some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapping 240. In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, launching a massive military campaign in Gaza aimed at destroying the group’s military and governance capabilities. Regular Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip has already killed more than 27,000 Palestinians.
