subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now
Syrian security forces stand guard at a damaged site after Israel carried out an air strike on the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, March 13 2025. Picture: REUTERS/FIRAS MAKESI
Syrian security forces stand guard at a damaged site after Israel carried out an air strike on the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, March 13 2025. Picture: REUTERS/FIRAS MAKESI

Damascus — Israel carried out an air strike on the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, targeting what the military said was a command centre belonging to Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Syria’s state news agency said three civilians had been hurt, including a woman who was in critical condition, and that the building was at the edge of Damascus.

A nine-second video released by the Israeli military, purportedly showing the air strike, captured what appeared to be an explosion at the edge of a building followed by thick plumes of smoke.

The military said the command centre was used to plan and direct “terrorist activities” by Islamic Jihad against Israel.

Islamic Jihad spokesperson Muhammad al-Haj Musa denied the targeted building was a command centre, writing on Telegram that it was an empty house.

Two Syrian security sources, without providing details, said that the target was a Palestinian.

Meanwhile, the head of the Druze community in Israel on Thursday hailed plans for the first visit by a Druze religious delegation from Syria in five decades, despite the escalating cross-border tensions.

Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif said the visit by about 100 Syrian Druze religious elders on Friday would be the first to Israel in about 50 years, when a group came in the immediate aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Israel, Syria and Egypt.

“All the Druze sect considers tomorrow a historic, festive day after a decades-long absence,” he said at his home in Julis in northern Israel.

Friday’s visit, which has not been officially confirmed, offers a further sign of Israel’s efforts to show its support for Syria’s Druze minority even as its suspicion of the new Islamist government in Damascus becomes increasingly evident. Last week hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said this week that Druze workers from Syria would be allowed into Israel, in a move that would offer a limited opening in the border for the first time since before the Syrian civil war.

Israel has also sent humanitarian aid to Druze communities in Syria.

Reuters

subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.