The Syrian news agency SANA reported early Monday that the air defense systems were active in the Damascus area after an airstrike. According to the report, the Israeli Air Force is behind the attack. It was also reported that echoes of the explosions were heard throughout the entire capital city. A Syrian military source later told Syrian reporters that Israel attacked the Damascus International Airport area with missiles, and as a result of the attack, two soldiers were killed and two more were injured.

SANA also reported the international airport in Damascus was damaged as a result and was shut down for now. At night, it was reported according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Syria to the airlines and pilots, that the two runways of the airport were closed and therefore the field was closed for all aviation.

#BREAKING: Bad news for proxies of #IRGC terrorist Organization! #Israeli Air Force has targeted one of the runways of #Damascus International Airport by means of Rampage missiles. No more weapon shipment to #Syria by cargo aircraft until repair work of the main runway finishes! pic.twitter.com/cWuLJsQv7h

— Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) January 2, 2023

Nevertheless, it was further reported that the damage to infrastructure was minor and required only minor repairing. By sunrise, the airport was already fully active. The Civil Aviation Authority has updated that one of the runways is fully repaired and that pilots are still required to take extreme caution when landing. Due to the relatively low traffic the Damascus airport receives, one runway can accommodate the entire volume of activity at the airport. The second runway is still closed for now.

The Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights reported that "hours after the attack, the civilian part of the airport in Damascus returned to activity." The report stated that "the field has returned to partial and not full activity, the runway used by civilian flights has returned to activity while the runway used by Iran and its militias is still disabled."

The airport in Damascus was already shut down in June 2022, due to an attack attributed to Israel. The overnight attack attributed to Israel is the first since the Netanyahu government was sworn in on Thursday last week. According to the Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights, in 2022 Israel was credited with 32 attacks against Iranian-funded militias on Syrian soil.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, #Israeli rockets struck positions of "#Hezbollah and pro-#Iranian groups" at the airport of #Damascus, #Syria. Four people were killed. pic.twitter.com/xtcMPke4Ru

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 2, 2023

The Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights reported that the targets of Israel's attack Sunday night were used by Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and that four people were killed. The center also reported that an unknown warehouse near the airport was damaged in the attack.

Since the Israeli government and Israel Defense Forces rarely announce their activities in Syria, both Israeli and international media rely on dozens of localized Syrian reports for information about the airstrikes directly attacking Iranian infrastructure.