Israel on Wednesday struck a residential neighbourhood in Damascus, Syrian official media reported.
The neighbourhood is home to several security and military headquarters. Syria’s state TV said, without immediately providing further details:
An Israeli attack with a number of missiles targets the Kafr Sousa residential neighbourhood in the capital Damascus.
The state-run SANA news agency published images of the alleged aftermath of the attack, showing the outside of the multi-storey building partially blackened, windows smashed and a fire in one of the flats. Authorities have cordoned off the area and firefighters are trying to extinguish the blaze.
“At least two dead in a provisional toll from the Israeli air attack on a residential apartment in the Kafr Sousa district” of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on its northern neighbour since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, mostly against Iranian-backed forces, including Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on 7 October, with several attacks recorded this month.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad and Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah, to expand its presence in Syria.
On 3 February, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had attacked more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria and 3,400 in Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war.
