Israeli airstrikes targeted southern Syria early Wednesday morning, killing eight soldiers and wounding seven more, Syria’s SANA news agency reported.
The strikes targeted the southern Deraa province and came after Israel said rockets were fired from Syria toward Israel. “At about 1:45 am on Wednesday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial act of aggression from the direction of occupied Syrian Golan, targeting several military sites in Deraa countryside,” a military source told SANA.
According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military said its “fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortars belonging to the Syrian army in response to the launches towards Israel yesterday [Tuesday].”
It’s unclear if the Syrian military was involved in firing rockets into Israel. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that fighters “loyal to Hezbollah” had “launched rockets towards the occupied Syrian Golan” from the Deraa province, likely referring to Shia militias that operate in Syria.
Later on Wednesday, Israel launched more airstrikes in Syria in the north that hit the Aleppo airport. “Nearly at 1:25 pm on Wednesday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the Mediterranean Sea, west of Lattakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, causing material damage to the airport’s runway and it’s now out of service,” a military source told SANA.
Israel has been bombing Syria for years, and the country’s airports became common targets toward the end of 2022. The two separate airstrikes on Wednesday marked at least the 30th time Israeli warplanes bombed Syria this year.
Since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s Gaza onslaught, Israel has targeted the Aleppo and Damascus airports several times. Israel frames its airstrikes in Syria as operations against Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in the country, but they often kill Syrians and damage civilian infrastructure.
Source: AntiWar.
