Missile event in Damascus, Damascus area, Syrian Arab Republic on Wed 19th July 2023

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in the Syrian capital Damascus early on 19 July, wounding two soldiers, Syria’s state-run SANA reported. The Israeli fighter jets launched their missiles from over the Golan Heights, targeting several sites in and around Damascus. “At about 12:25 a.m., the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the vicinity of Damascus,” a military source said in a statement to SANA. Syrian military sources said Syrian air defenses responded to the Israeli strikes, downing “most” of the missiles. The state-run media outlet said the strikes caused “material damage” and wounded two soldiers. The condition of the soldiers is unclear. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Wednesday’s strikes targeted military sites and warehouses of Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government, causing a fire to break out. Two weeks ago, Israel carried out similar airstrikes on areas near the central Syrian city of Homs, causing material damage but no casualties. Syrian state media said the air defenses shot down some missiles fired by Israeli warplanes flying over neighboring Lebanon. A Syrian anti-aircraft missile exploded over Israeli territory, after which Israel carried out another round of strikes. The SOHR noted that today’s strike was the 20th time Israel has attacked Syria this year. The Israeli government has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes against Syria since the US-led covert war on Damascus began in 2011. Israeli strikes have targeted the Syrian army and Syria’s allies, including Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). In some cases, the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes in direct support of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, which enjoyed support from Israel. Israeli planners view the ongoing bombing campaign as the “war between the wars,” meaning that although the US-led war in 2011 is essentially over, with Damascus having withstood the proxy war launched by the US and its regional allies, a new large-scale war with Syria and its allies, in particular Iran, is inevitable at some future point. Due to the improved missile capabilities of the resistance axis, which includes forces from Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah to Israel’s north, as well as Palestinian resistance groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas to Israel’s south in Gaza, Israel now fears it will have to fight a multi-front war to maintain its ongoing occupation and colonization of occupied Palestine.