Yesterday, Israel attacked the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The initial death toll was 36, making it already one of the deadliest strikes in years. That toll has only continued to soar as rescue efforts continue, however, and the latest figure is at least 79 were killed.
Details still aren’t totally clear on the matter. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that 53 Syrians were among the slain, along with dozens of foreign nationals. They said that the slain were linked to Iraq’s al-Nujaba Movement, a Shi’ite paramilitary group.
Whatever the case, UN deputy special envoy to Syria Najat Rochdi told the UN Security Council that this is likely the deadliest single Israeli attack on Syria in history. Rochdi was testifying about the escalation of Israeli attacks on Syrian soil, which have also spiked this month.
Israel has a long history of attacking Syria, and there are several hundred incidents in the past several years. In January 2021, Israel attacked military positions along the Syria-Iraq border, killing 57 people.
This attack though is deadly to the point that there is no obvious incident in Israel’s long history of attacking Syria that would have a higher toll. That this is just one of several attacks not part of any specific war only adds to the concern about the escalation.
Adding to the frustration around the incident, Israel has not yet commented at all on the matter. Though it isn’t unusual for Israel to attack a neighbor and not talked about, this strike seems so large and this death toll so high that it will be difficult for them to remain ambiguous about why they did it and what they hoped to accomplish.
