Israeli airstrike wounds 8 Syrian soldiers near Damascus

Eight Syrian soldiers were wounded during an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus, as reported by the Syrian Defense Ministry. The incident occurred overnight from Thursday to Friday.

The airstrike, initiated from the occupied Golan Heights and directed towards a site near Damascus, resulted in material damage, according to a statement by the Syrian ministry.

According to Reuters, the objective of the Israeli strike was a Syrian security force building. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a watchdog monitoring the situation in Syria with a broad network of sources, indicated that the target was a government building close to Damascus. This building has been utilized by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group since 2014.

Israel typically does not acknowledge such operations but continuously states its determination to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from expanding its influence in Syria. Since the Syrian civil war commenced in 2011, Israeli forces have conducted hundreds of strikes within the country, primarily targeting pro-Iranian factions.

The frequency of Israeli strikes has increased following the outbreak of conflict on October 7 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel maintains its strategy to exert pressure on Iran, and Syria, as Iran's ally, has frequently been caught in the crossfire.