(Photo Credit: JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
At midnight on 27 October Israeli forces targeted military sites in the vicinity of the Syrian capital Damascus, in the third attack on Syrian soil in the span of a week.
“Approximately at 00.30am today, 27 October, the Israeli enemy carried out a missile aggression from the direction of the Palestinian territories, targeting some points in the vicinity of Damascus city,” the state-run SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syria in recent years, targeting sites held by Syrian forces, as well as alleged positions of Iranian militias and of the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
The source said that the air defenses intercepted the missiles and shot down some of them, indicating only material damage was caused.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the Israeli bombing targeted Damascus International Airport and the Sayeda Zeinab area in the southern Damascus countryside.
The UK-based observatory also claimed four persons affiliated with Hezbollah were killed by the Israeli attack — the 28th since the start of 2022
This latest airstrike comes just a few days after Israeli jets launched several attacks on the outskirts of Damascus, resulting in material damage and leaving a Syrian soldier injured. State-run media reported that Syria’s air defenses intercepted most of the missiles.
Last month, five Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli missile attack near Damascus airport. Israeli raids in June caused Damascus airport to be out of service for about two weeks. Mere months later, the Tel Aviv targeted Damascus and Aleppo airports in simultaneous attacks.
Officials in the Israeli Defense Ministry claimed in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post,” that Israeli forces have destroyed about 90 percent of the Iranian military infrastructure in Syria.
According to a report published on 23 October, the newspaper stated that Israel “succeeded” in recent years in “almost completely,” limiting Iran’s ability to transfer weapons to Syria.