Two dead in Israel strikes on Damascus neighbourhood: state media

Damascus, Syria – AFP

An Israeli strike Wednesday on a residential area of Damascus killed at least two people, Syrian official media reported, the latest fatalities as hostilities increase during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“At least two killed”, Syria’s state TV said, in what it earlier described an “Israeli attack with a number of missiles” that targeted the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood in the capital Damascus.

The Israeli army told AFP it had no comment.

An AFP photographer said the strike hit a nine-storey building whose outside had been partially blackened, with damage centred around the fourth floor, while nearby cars were also damaged.

Authorities had cordoned off the area and firefighters were trying to extinguish the subsequent blaze, the photographer said.

Kafr Sousa, a high-security area of the Syrian capital, is home to senior security officials, security branches, intelligence headquarters and an Iranian cultural centre.

Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, mainly targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah.

The strikes have increased since Israel’s war on Gaza began in early October.

On February 10, Israeli air strikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near Damascus killed three people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

A day earlier, an area near a military airport west of Damascus came under missile attack, the Observatory had said, while the defence ministry said drones had entered Syrian airspace from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Earlier this month, the Observatory had said seven civilians were among 11 people killed in Israeli air strikes on the central Syrian city of Homs.

The strikes completely levelled a building in one of the city’s most affluent districts, and also hit other targets linked to Iran-backed groups, it added.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran — which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Lebanon’s powerful Hamas ally Hezbollah — to expand its presence in Syria.

On February 3, 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 war on Gaza.