Israeli Airstrikes Put Syria’s Damascus Airport Out of Service

The strikes came just hours after the airport resumed service for the first time since Israel bombed it in October

Israeli airstrikes again targeted Syria’s Damascus airport on Sunday, putting it out of service, Syria’s SANA news agency reported.

“At approximately 4:50 on Sunday afternoon, the Zionist enemy carried out an air aggression with missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting Damascus International Airport and some points in Damascus countryside,” a military source told SANA.

Israel began frequently targeting Syria’s airports in Damascus and Aleppo last summer, but the attacks have ramped up since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

Rudaw reported on Saturday that the Damascus airport was set to resume service after being inoperable for over a month due to Israeli airstrikes in October. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said flights resumed Sunday morning, just hours before Israel bombed the airport and knocked it out of service again.

Israeli officials have justified Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s airports by claiming they receive Iranian weapons shipments. But the airports are also used by civilians. Earlier this year, Israeli airstrikes on the Aleppo airport disrupted aid deliveries following a devastating earthquake that killed thousands of Syrians.

Israel frames its broader bombing campaign in Syria as operations against Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in the country, although the airstrikes frequently kill Syrians and damage civilian infrastructure. Before October 7, Israel bombed Syria at least 25 times this year.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.