At around 9 pm local time on Wednesday, August 31, Israel carried out air missile attacks on points outside of Damascus, the capital of Syria, according to reports from SANA. Israel also reportedly fired missiles at the Aleppo international airport an hour before the attacks in Damascus.
As per the SANA report, the attacks caused “material damages” but there were no reports of any casualties. SANA also reported that Syria’s missile defense system confronted the Israeli missiles and shot some of them down.
Wednesday’s attacks were the second such attacks in a week and the third this month. On Thursday, Israel had fired missiles targeting Hama and Tartous. Al-Jazeera later reported massive damage to some military sites in Masyaf and the killing of at least one Syrian soldier. However, Syria did not confirm reports of the death.
At least three Syrian soldiers were killed and three others were injured in similar Israeli attacks in Damascus and Tartous on August 14.
Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks inside Syria since the war in the country began in 2011. On most of the occasions, Israel has not acknowledged the attacks. On the rare instances when it has, it claims that the attacks targeted alleged Iranian presence.
The Syrian government has repeatedly raised complaints to the UN about the Israeli attacks, calling them violations of its sovereignty as well as international law, and has demanded that the body take action. The UN has failed to take note of the Syrian complaints so far.
The failure of the international community, including the Western media, to recognize and initiate action against Israeli violations of Syrian sovereignty has invited criticism from various sectors.
European and North American media and elites will remain silent or they will continue justifying the apartheid regime's aggression as well as its attacks on civilian targets, because they are racists and supremacists like their colonizing brethren in Palestine. pic.twitter.com/1qWw9sU4QK
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) August 31, 2022
Following the August 25 attacks, Syria had renewed its complaints with the UN. Its Foreign and Expatriate Ministry called on “the UN and security council to issue a clear and explicit condemnation of the Israeli aggressions.” It claimed that Israel is “determined to adopt a dangerous and stereotypical approach that increases the level of threats to regional and international peace and security, and opens the door wide open to tension, escalation and chaos in the region.”
Russia, which actively maintains a military presence in Syria on the invitation of the Bashar al-Assad government and is a permanent member of the UNSC, has in the past condemned the Israeli aggression. Russian news agency TASS reported that the Russian-made air defense system was responsible for shooting down Israeli missiles during the attacks on August 25.
