DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – At least two people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Syrian capital, Damascus, state media reported.
The attack on Wednesday took place in Kafr Sousa, an area that is home to a number of security and military headquarters, the news agency SANA reported.
Videos on social media verified by Al Jazeera showed an apartment on fire in a multistory building. Windows were shattered in nearby buildings and dozens of parked cars were damaged in the area.
An empty bus for the nearby al-Bawader Private School was damaged and people were seen rushing to fetch their children.
The neighborhood also has residential buildings and cultural centers. Witnesses heard several back-to-back explosions and ambulances rushed to the area, the Reuters news agency reported.
Syrian state TV did not say who was killed. Rami Abdulrahman, who heads the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said the two killed were inside an apartment but did not give any clues about their identities.
SOHR said the blasts in Damascus were “a result of a new Israeli targeting of Syrian territory”.
Since the start of the year, the group said it has documented 13 Israeli attacks on Syrian territory – eight airstrikes and five rocket attacks by ground forces, which destroyed nearly 31 targets and left 31 fighters dead and 13 others injured.
Eight civilians, including a woman, were also killed in the Israeli strikes this year, according to SOHR.
The United States and Israel have for years carried out attacks against targets in Syria.
The attacks renewed in intensity since October 7 when Hamas fighters stormed Zionist regime communities in southern parts of the occupied territories.
The unprecedented assault triggered a ferocious response by Israel which has killed more than 29,000 people in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, at least two people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon, amid exchanges of near-daily fire between the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and the occupying regime since early October.
Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported that a woman and her daughter were killed in the air raid that hit the village of Majdal Zoun on Wednesday.
The official National News Agency identified the mother as Khadija Salman. It said the six-year-old daughter, Amal al-Durr, was in critical condition and later died of her injuries. Local media reported at least two other injuries.
The Zionist regime’s warplanes also targeted the outskirts of the towns of Marwahin and Emm el-Tout. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.
Earlier in the day, Israeli warplanes had bombed al-Khiam town in southern Lebanon as artillery shells hit several border villages, including Alma el-Chaab, Dhayra and Jibbain.