Israel carried out two missile attacks inside Syria, killing one soldier and wounding five others in the early morning of Wednesday, February 9. The attacks were carried out from across the Lebanese border and the occupied Syrian Golan targeting civilian areas near the capital Damascus.
According to Syrian government sources, the twin attacks on civilian areas in the vicinity of the capital were carried out around 1 am. The Syrian air defense intercepted some of these missiles fired from across the Lebanon border. The second set of missile attacks were carried out a few minutes later from across the occupied Syrian Golan, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
The attack caused substantial damage to civilian infrastructure in the Qudsayya city near Damascus.
Israel acknowledged the attack, claiming that it used aircraft to carry out the attacks across the Golan Heights. It said that the attacks were a response to a missile attack from Syrian territories a day before. The missile had exploded in the air without causing any human or material damage.
The Syrian foreign ministry issued a statement calling the twin strikes “a double violation of the international law, UN principles and resolution relevant to Lebanon and Syria, particularly UN security council resolution No.350 of 1974 on disengagement treaty.”
The statement also accused the US of providing protection and enabling repeated Israeli aggression in Syria, which undermines the credibility of the international community and international law. The statement also warned that Syria has the right to use all legitimate means to respond to such aggression, SANA reported.
Israel has launched hundreds of attacks inside Syria since the war began in 2011, killing a large number of Syrian civilians. Most of these strikes are carried out by violating Lebanese airspace. Lebanon has filed several complaints in this regard in the UN Security council (UNSC). However, no action has been initiated in the matter at the UNSC.
Israel rarely acknowledges such strikes. On the rare occasions when it does, it claims them to be defensive in nature targeting Iranian and Hezbollah installations inside Syria. It claims that Iranian and Hezbollah networks in Syria are a threat to its national security. However, the Syrian government has asserted that Israeli aggression is a way to prolong the war in the country and to aid terrorist forces fighting against the government.
