ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven people, including children and women, were killed and 20 others were wounded in the vicinity of Damascus on Sunday in an airstrike Syrian government blamed on Israel. “Nearly at 17:00 today, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial act of aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan [Heights], targeting a residential building in Sayyidah Zaynab area of Damascus Countryside,” the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement. It added that in addition to the casualties, the strike inflicted material damage to private properties as well. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas in Syria through its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army. The strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israel, which retaliated by invading Gaza. The conflict has now spread to Lebanon. Israel rarely confirms strikes attributed to it in Syria, but has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold in the country.
