Two Civilians Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Syrian Capital of Damascus

As they launch wars across the region, Israeli airstrikes are increasingly common in a lot of places, one of them being the Syrian capital city of Damascus. Today, another airstrike was reported against a civilian car in Damascus’ Mazzeh District, killing two civilians and wounding three others.

Syrian state media agency SANA confirmed the incident had destroyed the car, and did material damage to private property, including a nearby hotel. The strike was reportedly near the Syrian Information Ministry.

Mazzeh is the upscale district in Damascus, and home of a number of government ministry and embassies. It has also been the target of a number of Israeli airstrikes, including last week’s which killed seven civilians in an apartment building.

Hebrew-language media are claiming that the vehicle was “transferring arms from Iran.” That’s a common enough excuse, but the images of the car show no signs of any weapons having been within, and no indication this was anything but a civilian car in the government and civilian neighborhood.

The Israeli military, by contrast, is claiming they killed a Hezbollah financier in the attack. They didn’t name the victim, but claimed the Damascus attack as part of a flurry of strikes on banks across Lebanon.

Israel has been attacking Syria for years, targeting sites in Damascus and elsewhere throughout the lengthy Syrian Civil War despite their claim of neutrality. They are escalating the rate of the attacks in Syria over the past two months.

The escalation coincides with the Israeli invasion of neighboring Lebanon, an invasion which has led hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee into Syria, and for those who are able to flee onward to other countries, as Syria is no safer from Israeli airstrikes than Lebanon is.