Syrian state-run media reported that Israel struck the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus on Friday, marking the second attack in as many days on the neighborhood, which hosts embassies, security headquarters, and United Nations offices.
Israeli strikes in Syria have intensified, particularly near the Lebanese border, where they have reportedly targeted Hezbollah strongholds.
The conflict escalated in September when Israel went to war with the Iran-backed group, which is also allied with Syria, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war.
"Israeli aggression targets the Mazzeh area in Damascus," the official SANA news agency said Friday, after reporting a deadly Israeli strike on the district the previous day.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes targeted a "military housing complex" in Mazzeh.
"Fire trucks and ambulances headed to the targeted site amid reports of casualties, with security services and regime forces completely cordoning off the targeted area," the Observatory said.
Israeli strikes on Thursday in and around Damascus killed 23 people, according to the Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
Thursday's strike on Mazzeh killed 13 people, while an attack on the outskirts of Damascus killed 10 Palestinian Islamic Jihad members, the monitor said.
Islamic Jihad has backed Hamas to resist Israeli forces in Gaza and has been at war with Israel before.
Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for Thursday's strike, saying they targeted Islamic Jihad.
Israel's army said it would strike Islamic Jihad "wherever necessary," accusing it of operating "in Syria under the cover of the Syrian regime" and "assisting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon with the purpose of attacking Israel."
The attacks coincided with an official visit to Damascus on Thursday by Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Since Sept. 23, Israel has escalated its bombing of Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the latest Gaza conflict.
"Israel is now escalating its attacks on Syria" after the outbreak of the Lebanon war, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, adding, "They are targeting everyone who has a connection to the Iranian axis."
Israeli strikes hit the Qusayr border area – where Hezbollah holds influence – at least 28 times since the war broke out in September, Rahman said.
"Intensified Israeli raids on areas where Hezbollah and Iran-backed groups hold sway inside Syria are a message to Iran and Hezbollah: We will hunt you down everywhere," he said.
The attacks were also a way of pressuring the Syrian government to distance itself from Tehran, he added.
