Israeli strikes on the Homs region, in central Syria, left five dead, including three civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), with the Syrian Defense Ministry citing an unspecified number of civilians killed or injured.
“Five people were killed, including three civilians – a woman, a child and a man – and seven others were injured in Israeli strikes against a building in the Hamra neighborhood in the city of Homs
,” the statement said. OSDH, revising upwards a previous toll which was four deaths.
The Syrian Defense Ministry indicated that
“the Israeli enemy carried out airstrikes from the region north of Tripoli (Lebanon), targeting several targets in the city of Homs and its surroundings (...) killing and injuring a number of civilians
.
Syrian state television broadcast footage showing rescuers searching through the rubble of what appeared to be a collapsed building, and carrying a person on a stretcher.
According to OSDH director Abdel Rahman, the affected building in Homs completely collapsed.
Pro-Iranian forces targeted by Israel
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, mainly targeting pro-Iranian forces, notably the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah allied with the Syrian regime, as well as the Syrian army.
These attacks have intensified since the start, on October 7, of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, ally of Hezbollah.
At the end of January, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed eight people, including pro-Iranian fighters, according to the OSDH.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence there.
On Saturday, the Israeli army claimed to have attacked on the ground and from the air more than 50 targets linked to Hezbollah in Syria since October.
Last week, the United States also carried out strikes against groups supported by Iran in Syria and Iraq, killing several dozen people, in retaliation for a deadly attack against its troops in Jordan.