Syria condemns deadly Israel air strikes on ‘civilian sites’ near Damascus

Syria’s Foreign Ministry calls for ‘urgent action’ from the UN to stop ‘Israeli aggression’ against civilians.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called on the United Nations to act following Israeli air strikes south of the Syrian capital Damascus, which a human rights monitor said have killed two people and left five others wounded.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA, citing a military source, said the attack on Monday evening at about 5:18pm local time (14:18 GMT) involved Israeli warplanes hitting “a number of civilian sites south of Damascus, resulting in material losses”.

“The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan” heights, the military source told SANA.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the latest attack, calling the Israeli missile strikes on civilian areas “criminal” and urged UN members to take swift action in “halting Israeli aggression” and holding it accountable.

“The Syrian Arab Republic condemns the aggression launched by the Zionist entity this evening,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Syria calls on member states of the United Nations to take urgent action and firm measures to stop the Israeli aggression and hold its perpetrators accountable for their crimes.”

According to reports, Israeli jet fighters carried out three strikes in the Sayyidah Zaynab area, located about 10km (6 miles) south of Damascus.

The first strike hit the Kaou Sudan junction near Sayyidah Zaynab, which was crowded with displaced people who had fled Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. The second strike was in the vicinity of a hotel, located to the southeast of Sayyidah Zaynab, and the third attack targeted farmhouses in the area.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said two members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement were reported killed and five were seriously injured in Israeli air strikes on a farm in the area.

In a rare admission, the Israeli Air Force claimed early on Tuesday morning that it had hit “targets” in Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the “Syrian region”.

“Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters operates a branch in Syria, which includes a collection and assessment system”, the Israeli Air Force said in a post on social media.

“The attack on the assets of the military intelligence headquarters in Syria joins the attacks in Lebanon in damaging the intelligence capabilities of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah,” the air force said.

Sayyidah Zaynab, considered a Hezbollah stronghold and the site of an important Shia shrine, has been the target of previous Israeli strikes.

Sources say it remains high on Israel’s list of targets due to the presence of members of the Lebanese movement who have fled to Syria.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria for years, mostly without admitting responsibility, and has intensified those attacks since the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies