Israeli warplanes attacked the Damascus countryside early on 17 March, a military source told Syrian news agency SANA.
“At about 00:42 a.m. on Sunday, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial act of aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of sites in the southern region,” the source said.
It added that “air defenses intercepted the missiles and downed some of them,” and that the Israeli “aggression injured a soldier and caused material damages.”
According to a Sputnik correspondent, the Israeli strikes targeted the Qalamoun area in the countryside of Damascus.
“Israeli aircraft launched a number of guided missiles from over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and attempted to target some sites in the Damascus countryside. The interceptor missiles of the Syrian Air Defense Forces intercepted most of the Israeli missiles before they reached their target,” the correspondent said.
Hebrew media had reported hours earlier on 16 March that a number of rockets had been launched from Syria towards Israeli settlements and military positions in the occupied Syrian Golan heights, and that Israeli artillery responded with shells towards agricultural lands in the western countryside of Daraa.
Israel has continued its years-long campaign of illegal strikes on what it claims are Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. More often than not, Israeli attacks on the country end up targeting Syrian military forces.
Late last month, on 25 February, Israeli airstrikes targeted two trucks, killing three people near the Orontes Bridge in Qusayr near the Lebanese border. Days earlier, at least two people were killed and one injured by an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Damascus.
The attacks come as Israel continues to wage a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed over 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israel is also targeting the south of Lebanon with indiscriminate attacks in response to Hezbollah’s operations against it.
“Israel’s continuation of its attacks indicates its failure and the escalation of hysteria from which it suffers,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in late October, adding that Syria will remain “steadfast in the face of all attempts by Israel and terrorist forces to weaken it and divert it from its position of support for the Palestinian people.”
Source: The Cradle