Israeli bombings killed 14 individuals in central Hama province overnight, according to Syrian official media. A war monitor reported a greater death toll due to raids on critical military locations.
The Israeli military, which has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the civil war began in 2011, refuses to comment on the latest claimed attack.
According to a medical source, “the number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression on a number of sites in the vicinity of Masyaf has risen to 14 martyrs and 43 wounded, including six critically.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, claimed “intense Israeli strikes” overnight, killing “18 people” including eight Syrian fighters. According to the report, 32 other people were injured.
Israeli strikes on Syria since 2011 have primarily targeted army sites and Iran-backed fighters, particularly those from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
Israeli officials seldom comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have consistently stated that they will not let arch-enemy Iran to grow its position.
According to Syria’s SANA news agency, citing a military source, at “around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) on Sunday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack” from the direction of northwest Lebanon “targeting a number of military sites in the central region”.
SANA stated that air defences “shot down some” of the missiles.
According to the Observatory, Israeli strikes destroyed buildings and military centers, including a scientific research location in Masyaf, Hama province.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of informants inside Syria, previously stated that the strikes targeted “where pro-Iran groups and weapons development experts are stationed.”
Missiles and drones
Observatory chairman Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that it was “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years.
He said that Iranian scientists “developing arms including precision missiles and drones” worked in the targeted scientific research center.
According to Nasser Kanani, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, “We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil.”
Israeli airstrikes on Syria increased after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel ignited war in Gaza, then tapered off until an April 1 strike blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consulate building in Damascus.
Syria has attempted to keep out of the Israel-Hamas confrontation, which has sparked worries of a larger regional war.
The Observatory reported that in late August, seven pro-Iranian fighters were killed in Syria’s central Homs province in attacks attributed to Israel.
Days later, the Israeli military claimed to have killed an unidentified number of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad members in an attack in Syria near the Lebanese border.
The Syrian government’s harsh suppression of a 2011 uprising sparked the conflict, which has killed over 500,000 people and brought in international troops and Islamists.
Iran-backed militias, including Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement, have aided President Bashar al-Assad’s army in Syria’s civil conflict.
Israeli raids on Syria have also aimed to cut off Hezbollah’s supply routes to Lebanon.