Israeli strike on Damascus kills 5 Iranian Revolutionary Guards: state media

An Israeli missile strike on Syria's capital Damascus on Saturday killed fivemembers of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the elite force's information unit in Syria, Iranian and Syrian state media reported.

Israel has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran-linked targets in Syria. But it has shifted to deadlier strikes in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militants of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza.

Syrian state media reported an Israeli "aerial attack" on abuilding in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus and said Syrianair defences had shot down a number of missiles.Other local media in Syria said explosions were heard across the Syrian capital.

Asecurity source who is part of a network of groups close to Syria's government and its major ally Iran, said the multi-storey building was used by Iranian advisers supporting President Bashar al-Assad's government, and that it was entirely flattened by "precision-targeted Israeli missiles."

Iran condemns strike

Iran's foreign ministrycondemned theIsraeli strikeas a"desperate attempt to spread instability in region," state mediareported.

"Iran ... reserves its right to respond to the organizedterrorism of the fake Zionist regime at the appropriate time andplace," foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quotedby state media as saying. He also urged foreign countries andinternational organizations to condemn the attack.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to punish Israel for the strike, according to state media.

"The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime's crimes unanswered," Raisi said in a statement condemning the strike, state broadcaster IRIB said on its website.

Iran's state-run media initially reported four members of the force had died, then later cited a statement from the Revolutionary Guards as saying a fifth member, Mohammad Amin Samadi, had died of his wounds from the Israeli strike.

Two others who were killed were earileridentified asGen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, anintelligence officer with the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, who goes by the nom de guerre Hajj Gholam.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Essam Al-Amin, head of the Al-Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told Reuters that his hospital had received one body and three wounded people, including a woman, following Saturday's attack.

A spokespersonfor Palestinian Islamic Jihad told Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in the strike, following reports that some were at the bombed-out building.

In December, an Israeli strike killed two Guards members in Damascus, and another on Dec. 25 killed a senior adviser to the Guards who was overseeing military coordination between Syria and Iran.

WATCH |U.S. stands by Israel despite Netanyahu opposition to Palestinian state:

U.S. stands by Israel despite Netanyahu opposition to Palestinian state

4 months ago

Duration 2:06

The White House says it is standing by Israel despite a very public split with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on what happens with Gaza when the war ends. Canada and the U.S. both call for a two-state solution, but Netanyahu has long rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Regional impactsfromIsrael-Hamas war

The Israel-Hamas war that began in October has rippled across the Middle East,with Iranian-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets.

Fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Houthi rebels in Yemen, also backed by Iran,continue to target international shipping in the Red Sea despite U.S.-led airstrikes.

On Saturday, an Israeli drone strike on a car near the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two Hezbollah members, an official with the group said. One of those killed was One of those killed was Ali Hudruj, a local Hezbollah commander, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, without giving further details.

Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas following the militant group's unprecedented attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel and saw about 250 others taken hostage from the country's south. Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza say Israel's offensive has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, a majority of them womenand children.

Attacks on Gaza intensify

Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday while its planes droppedleaflets on the southern area of Rafah, urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas, residents said.

In the southern area of Khan Younis, where Israel says it has expanded its operations against Hamas, witnesses said tanks shelled areas around Nasser Hospital overnight, describing thebombardment as the most intense in many days.

Nasser is now Gaza's largest functioning hospital. Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals, including Nasser, which Hamas and medical staff deny.

The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 165 people and wounded 280 others in the past 24 hours, one of the biggest death tolls in a single day so far in 2024.

Five people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Jabalia, health officials said. In Rafah, medics said four people were killed and others were wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the middle of thecity. The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

Israeli hostages' families protest

Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7 protested Saturday outside the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing frustration over his government's seeming lack of progress in getting the more than 100 remaining captives released.

On Friday, the father of a 28-year-old hostage began what he called a hunger strike outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the coastal town of Caesarea.

Eli Shtivi, whose son Idan was among those kidnapped from a music festival in southern Israel, pledged to severely limit his food intake until the prime minister agrees to meet with him. Dozens of people who joined Shtivi were still there on Saturday.

Netanyahu rejects anyPalestinian sovereignty

After a phone call between Netanyahuand U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday the first in nearly a month Biden told reporters that his administration takes the stance that "there are a number of types of two-state solutions" for Israel and the Palestinian people.

Asked if a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied, "No, it's not."

However, Netanyahu opposes any form of Palestinian sovereignty in post-war Gaza, his office said Saturday, appearing to rebuff Biden's suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the leaders' views on Palestinian statehood.

The statement from the prime minister's office said Netanyahu made clearin theconversation with Biden thathis position on a post-war Gaza hasn't changed. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel must retain security control over the territory after Hamas is destroyed "a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty," thestatement said.