Initial reports suggest that an Israeli attack was directed at a residential building in the Kafr Sousa area of Damascus, writes the regime-controlled news agency Sana. A military facility in the city of Homs was also reportedly hit.
A soldier was killed and seven people were injured in the attack, according to state media. The London-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR) also reports that there were fatalities in connection with the attack.
Since the civil war broke out in Syria, Israel has regularly attacked targets in the country, often without commenting on them.
Unusually strong statement
On Wednesday, Geir Pedersen, the UN's envoy for Syria, warned that the "heat from the conflict fires" raging in Gaza and Lebanon is already being felt in Syria – but that the situation could become even more serious.
In an unusually strongly worded statement, Pedersen urged the UN Security Council to closely monitor a possible spread of the conflict.
In the past month, we have seen the fastest and most extensive campaign of Israeli airstrikes in the past 13 years, said Geir Pedersen.
New Russian airstrikes
Moreover, the regional escalation appears to be catalyzing the country's internal conflict, according to Pedersen, while Russia – which supports the Syrian government – has resumed airstrikes for the first time in a long time.
Israeli attacks on the road between Beirut and Damascus have hindered fleeing civilians and "strangled a vital commercial artery between the countries", according to Geir Pedersen.
We see all the ingredients for a military, humanitarian, and economic storm breaking out over an already devastated Syria, said Pedersen.
