BEIRUT: A human rights monitor says that on Monday, the Israeli army fired a missile at the Damascus International Airport, killing four people, including two Syrian soldiers.
This is the second time in under seven months that the Damascus air terminal has been hit by Israel.
According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the attack, which occurred around 2:00 a.m. (2300 GMT), caused the main airport in the country to be out of service.
A military source told SANA that Israel carried out the strike with “barrages of missiles, targeting Damascus International Airport and its surroundings,” and that two Syrian soldiers were killed.
However, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a vast network of Syrian sources, reported that the early morning attack had killed four individuals.
The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman, told AFP that the Israeli strike resulted in the deaths of “four fighters, including two Syrian soldiers.”
According to Abdul Rahman, the missiles also struck “positions for Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups inside the airport and its surroundings, including a weapons warehouse.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbor since the 2011 civil war in Syria broke out, targeting government troops, allied Iran-backed forces, and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Israel has repeatedly stated that it will not permit its archrival Iran to establish a foothold in Syria, despite the fact that it rarely responds to specific reports of its attacks.
The strike on Monday comes just a few days after Major General Oded Basiuk, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate, shared the army’s operational outlook for 2023.
On Basiuk’s presentation, the IDF tweeted, “We see that our course of action in Syria is an example of how continuous and persistent military action leads to shaping and influencing the entire region.”
We will not permit Hezbollah 2.0 to operate in Syria.
More than a decade of war
The airport was shut down for the last time in June 2022, also as a result of an Israeli missile strike.
The attack severely damaged the runway, control tower, three hangars, warehouses, and reception areas, necessitating the airport’s closure for approximately two weeks and the suspension of flights.
The Observatory stated at the time that the strikes had targeted nearby warehouses that Iran and Hezbollah used as weapons depots, just like in the attack on Monday.
The brutal suppression of peaceful protests that started the conflict in Syria escalated to include foreign powers.
The conflict has resulted in the deaths of approximately half a million people and the exodus of approximately half of the country’s pre-war population.
Even though fighting has mostly stopped in the last three years, there are still occasional bouts of fighting and attacks, mostly in the east of the country.
Syria saw its lowest annual death toll since the conflict began more than a decade ago in 2022.
Something like 3,825 individuals kicked the bucket in Syria’s conflict in 2022, as per figures aggregated by the Observatory — down from the earlier year’s 3,882.
Among those killed in 2022 were 1,627 regular people, including 321 youngsters, the Observatory said.
Two Palestinians killed by Israel in West Bank
In another occurrence, the Israeli armed force killed two Palestinians in a West Bank strike on Monday. Palestinian officials stated that the homes of two Palestinians who were accused of killing an Israeli soldier were destroyed by the army.
During an Israeli army raid near Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry reported the deaths of “Mohammad Samer Hoshieh, 22, after being shot in the chest, and Fuad Mohammad Abed, 25, after being shot in the abdomen and thigh.”
According to Israel’s military, Israeli soldiers had entered the Kafr Dan village “in order to demolish the residences of the assailants who were involved in the shooting adjacent to the Gilboa (Jalame) Crossing, in which Major Bar Falah was killed.”
On Monday, shortly after sunrise, two houses were destroyed by explosives, causing the small village to be enveloped in smoke.
When troops entered the village, the army later stated that “a violent riot was instigated.”
The statement read, “Rioters burned tires, fired live fire, threw rocks, Molotov cocktails, and explosives at the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means and live fire.” It added, “Hits were identified.”
In overnight raids throughout the West Bank, the Israeli army reportedly detained 18 more people, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In September 2022, Israeli Major Falah was killed in combat with Palestinian gunmen at the Gilboa checkpoint between Israel and the occupied West Bank.
The armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, claimed responsibility for his death.
In the September clashes that resulted in Falah’s death, 23-year-old Ahmed Abed and 22-year-old Abdul Rahman Subhi Abed, whose family homes were destroyed on Monday, were also killed.
New right-wing government
Israel frequently demolishes the homes of people it accuses of attacking Israelis.
Human rights activists contend that Israel’s policy of demolishing the homes of suspected attackers amounts to collective punishment due to the possibility of displacing non-combatants, such as children.
However, Israel claims that the practice prevents some Palestinians from carrying out attacks.
The two deaths represent the first for 2023 in the West Bank.
At least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis were killed in Israel and the West Bank, including the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, in 2022, making it the deadliest year for Palestinians since the 2002-2005 uprising known as the Second Intifada.
Fears of a military escalation in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, have been raised by the new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history.
Along with the rest of the new government, which was sworn in on Thursday, two of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners will be in charge of important powers related to the relationship with Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank will be overseen by Bezalel Smotrich, and Itamar Ben-Gvir is the new national security minister with authority over the border police, which also operate in the territory.
Both have made derogatory remarks about Palestinians in the past.
Source: AFP
