Israel carried out airstrikes on the Syrian capital Damascus and a military facility near the western city of Homs, authorities said, while Hezbollah confirmed it had launched a second artillery strike on Israeli forces near the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun.
Israel launched strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus
According to Syria’s defence ministry, Israeli strikes hit the central Damascus district of Kafr Sousa and a military facility in the Homs countryside on Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding seven others.
The strikes caused “material damage,” the ministry said in a statement, but did not elaborate.
Earlier in the day, Syrian state media reported that explosions were heard in Damascus after Israel struck a residential building in Kafr Sousa.
Israel did not issue a statement because it does not normally comment on reports of strikes in Syria. The attack came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is touring the region demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Israel has been striking Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, but has stepped up its raids since last year’s October 7 attack in southern Israel, led by the Palestinian group Hamas.
Hezbollah launched an artillery strike against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon
Hezbollah has confirmed that it has launched an artillery strike against Israeli forces for the second time on the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, Cairo News Channel reported.
This comes as part of escalating tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where clashes and shelling between the two sides have increased since the start of the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
UNIFIL has been operating in the area since 1978 under a UN mandate to preserve peace on Lebanon’s southern border, but rising military tensions have raised fears that the conflict could spread to southern Lebanon on a wider scale. The organisation has repeatedly called for restraint and military de-escalation while international parties try to prevent military conflict in the region.
Gaza Civil Defence Agency can no longer provide first aid services in the north
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday it could no longer provide first aid services in the territory’s north, accusing Israeli forces of threatening to “bomb and kill” its brigades.
AFP reports that Mahmud Bassal, the agency’s spokesperson, said
We are unable to provide humanitarian services to citizens in the northern governorate of the Gaza Strip due to threats from Israeli occupation forces, who have threatened to kill and bomb our teams if they remain inside Jabalia camp.
He told AFP that first responders have been repeatedly “targeted” by Israeli forces, leaving “several injured and others left bleeding in the streets and no one can save them.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed 42,792 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable. The war has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced about 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million.
