At Least Three Killed in Israeli Airstrikes on Central Syrian City of Hama

On Friday evening, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of attacks on four different targets in and around the provinces of Hama and Homs and central Syria. The attacks targeted Syrian air defenses and sites believed to have a non-Syrian militia presence.

Reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights were that three people were killed, all with some unidentified “pro-Iran militia,” and 10 other people were wounded. The attack on the air defense battery in Homs Province was near the Lebanon border.

Syrian state media reported that at least seven of the wounded were civilians. They also added that some of the missiles fired by the Israeli warplanes were intercepted during the course of the attack.

In addition to the Homs air defense battery, the sites targeted were identified by the Observatory as a Hama weapons depot, the administration of the 47^th brigade, and another air defense battery in Ma’arin Mountain, which reportedly was being used as a deployment site by Shi’ite militias.

Other reports from another opposition figure were that the Israeli attacks in Hama also targeted a scientific research center and a veterinary college. The research center had reportedly been used in the past to develop Scud missiles.

Israel has been carrying out a growing number of attacks on neighboring countries in recent months, with an active war in the Gaza Strip and a growing air war against Lebanon. Attacks in Syria are less frequent, but have been ongoing for years, despite Israel’s claims of neutrality in the Syrian Civil War.