Israel conducted its tenth attack this year on suspected Iranian positions in Syria in the Damascus airport area and the fourth attack in less than a week.
The attack came at 12:15 am local time and Syrian air defenses fired missiles and reportedly stopped two incoming projectiles. Syria said two civilians were killed, but neither Damascus nor Tehran announce the true number of military casualties in these attacks.
The Syrian government also said that the attack was launched from the direction of the Golan Heights.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor said that explosions were heard in the areas of Qasiyon Mountain and Al-Saida Zainab area, and ambulances rushed to these areas.
Israel has been regularly attacking targets in Syria since 2017 to weaken Iran's attempts to strengthen its military presence in the war-torn country and build up a threat on Israel's northern borders.
Government-controlled media in Iran simply carried what the Syrian government had reported, without further comments. Military figures usually refer to such attacks with a delay.
Israel’s first attack in five days came on March 30, followed by another strike on March 31. Iran admitted that two IRGC “military advisors were martyred” in those attacks and vowed revenge. Some observers commented that announcing the death of two officers meant that Tehran wanted to lay the ground for retaliation.
After a third Israeli attack early Sunday, an unidentified aircraft that was trying to penetrate the Israeli air space was shot down, but it remains unclear what type of aircraft it was or whether it was Iranian. Israeli media quoted a military source as saying that apparently Iran was behind the launch of a drone, but so far the government has not officially blamed Iran.
Iran has considerable drone capabilities that it has used against US bases in Syria as recently as last month, killing a US contractor and injuring at least eight US servicemen.
Tensions rose in Syria when on March 23 Iranian backed forces attacked a US base with a drone, inflicting casualties. The US responded with an air strike, which was followed by more attacks on US forces. The tit-for-tat strikes stopped after two days, but Iran has targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria 80 times since early 2021 when the Biden administration assumed office.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Iran in the context of agitating Palestinians to conduct more attacks. "We will not allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to harm us. We have not allowed it in the past, we won’t allow it now, or anytime in the future," Gallant said during the visit to an army brigade in the West Bank on Sunday.
"All our fronts are tense. The Iranians are extending their outreach to (the West Bank) and Gaza and are attempting to entrench themselves in Syria and Lebanon," said Gallant.