Syrian television news channels reported Monday evening on an alleged Israeli attack in Damascus. It was also reported by many on social media that explosions were heard in the area, and the air defense systems of the Syrian army were activated.
According to the reports, one of the areas that were attacked was Al-Sayida Zainab, a southern Damascus suburb, where there is a large presence of Hezbollah forces and pro-Iranian militias. The Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights, an opposition organization to the Syrian regime based in London, reported that Israel attacked several "Iranian sites" in the suburbs of Damascus and that three people were killed, all three of whom are not Syrian citizens. It was also reported that Israel destroyed a Hezbollah warehouse in the Sayida Zainab area, where weapons and other logistical equipment were stored.
#Syria#Damascus
— Levant 24 (@Levant_24_) December 19, 2022
According to local sources Israel conducted a number of airstrikes in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport. pic.twitter.com/WNdq3yXhT3
The Syrian government-affiliated news agency "SANA" noted that two military personnel were injured and damage was caused. At the same time, the Saudi television network "Al-Arabiya" reported that as part of the attack, two targets of the Syrian regime were hit in the area of the airport. According to the Saudi report, one of the targets of the attack was an air defense battery that was recently deployed in the area of the airport. The attack, it was reported, occurred after an Iranian plane landed earlier in the field.
Israel has warned Iran against using commercial flights to transport weapons. Earlier this month it was reported that the Iranian carrier Meraj airlines were being used by the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corp to bring weapons into Lebanon. Meraj also flies to several Syrian cities. Mahan air, another regional Iranian carrier that has already been sanctioned by Western countries is also suspected of being used for weapons transports.
(2/2) 2. The landing of a "Mahan Air" from #Tehran empty of passengers on December 18 in the afternoon.
— Israel-Alma (@Israel_Alma_org) December 20, 2022
3. The landing of the Alyoshin 76 plane on December 19 from Tehran.
A question - If the airstrike is related to the landing of a plane, which plane is the immediate suspect??
According to the Opposition monitoring center in London, this is the 32nd Israeli attack on Syrian soil since the beginning of the year. The attack comes exactly one month after the previous airstrike attributed to Israel in Syria. The previous attack happened at a relatively unusual time, around 6:30 AM, and it was claimed that the Israeli air force bombed targets on the Syrian coastal plain and in the center of the country. According to Syrian news agencies, four military personnel were killed in the attack, and one was wounded.
The attack also comes a few days after Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi, confirmed last week, in a relatively rare admission, that Israel was responsible for a previous attack in Syria, on the border with Iraq, in which a convoy intended to smuggle Iranian weapons was hit.
New strikes around Damascus appear to target Hezbollah assets in #Syria. #Israel has once again not commented on what is likely their offensive action.https://t.co/3VGBWio4zb
— Alexander Langlois (@langloisajl) December 20, 2022
Kochavi, who attended a conference at Reichman University last Wednesday, spoke about the importance of the IDF’s advanced intelligence and technology capabilities: "We could have not known a few weeks ago about the Syrian convoy that was moving from Iraq to Syria. We could not have known what was in it and we could not have known that out of 25 trucks, truck number 8 was the one with weapons," he said.
