Israeli Jets Attack Damascus Apartment Building, Killing Two
Several presumed Israeli airstrikes rocked a residential area of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday. A wave of initial strikes reportedly activated Syria's anti-air defenses, but there was at least one direct hit on an apartment building.
"Israeli strikes hit a neighborhood of the Syrian capital on Wednesday morning, killing two people and causing material damage, Syria’s state TV said," according to the Associated Press.
Hours after this initial attack, new explosions were reported in regional media, however few details were given on the presumed second round of strikes. Several missiles hit the western neighborhood of Kfar Sousseh, reportedly near what's being described as an Iranian school.
"The strike damaged the fourth floor of a 10-story building, shattered window glass on nearby buildings and also damaged dozens of cars parked in the area," the AP continued. "An empty parked bus for the nearby Al-Bawader Private School was also damaged and people were seen rushing to the school to take their children."
Likely Israeli officials will seek to justify the new aggression by saying Iranian officials were being targeted. It follows a major December airstrike on a suburb of Damascus which killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi.
Israeli attacks on Syria have grown more frequent of late once again after a temporary lull last year. Syria for its part in the weeks after Oct.7 had launched missiles on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Things are also heating up in nearby Lebanon, as Israeli attacks in response to daily Hezbollah rockets and drones increase and are getting deeper into Lebanese territory. Syria's President Assad is seen as a staunch ally of Hezbollah and the Iranians. Israel has long warned about the Iranian presence on Syrian soil, after a decade-long proxy war there.
On Tuesday an Israeli Knesset member said a Hezbollah drone fell on his residential property...
🇮🇱HEZBOLLAH SENDS DRONE TO ISRAELI MINISTER’S HOUSE
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 20, 2024
He wasn’t too happy about the “present.”
Moshe Davidowitz: “In broad daylight, Hezbollah sends a drone near my yard. This is not escalation, this is war.”
Source: News Cabinet pic.twitter.com/7MZQQXQFmb
Many analysts expect that if broader war opens between Hezbollah and Israel, the conflict could engulf the whole region, given also the Hezbollah presence in Syria.
At the same time pro-Iran Iraqi militias have in recent months launched major attacks on US bases in the region, resulting in a few waves of US missile attacks, in retaliation for the killing of three US Army soldiers along the Syria-Jordan border.