DAMASCUS (AP) — Airstrikes attributed to Israel targeted the Syrian capital on Sunday evening, the first such strikes in a month, Syrian state media reported.
Syrian air defenses responded to strikes in the vicinity of Damascus and shot down some, the official SANA news agency reported. The attack only caused “property damage”, he added.
The last alleged Israeli airstrike on Syria dates back to April 29, targeting the province of Homs. SANA, citing military officials, said at the time that three civilians were injured in the strike and that a civilian gas station caught fire and a number of tankers and trucks were set on fire.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli authorities regarding Sunday’s strikes on Damascus.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-held parts of neighboring Syria in recent years but rarely acknowledges them.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier this month in a speech at a security conference that Israel’s new government had dramatically increased the number of strikes against Iranian targets since taking office. in office at the end of last year.
Last week, an Israeli military spokesman said in a statement that an Israeli drone carrying out a surveillance mission in Syrian airspace “came under small arms fire” and that Israeli forces had retaliated with machine gun fire.