BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israeli strikes on Syria’s Homs on Wednesday killed five people including three civilians, a war monitor said, with Syria’s defence ministry reporting an unspecified number of civilians dead.
“Five people have been killed including three civilians — a woman, a child, and a man — and seven others were injured in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighbourhood of Homs city,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll of four.
The monitor said the identities of the two non-civilian casualties were unknown.
The Syrian Ministry of Defence announced that “the Israeli enemy launched airstrikes from the direction north of Tripoli (Lebanon) targeting a number of places in the city of Homs and its countryside… killing and injuring a number of civilians.”
Syrian state television shared footage of rescue workers digging through the rubble of what appeared to be a collapsed building and carrying someone on a stretcher.
Syrian state television had previously reported an “Israeli attack” on central Syria in the province of Homs.
Last week, the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed groups in Syria and Iraq, killing dozens in retaliation for a deadly attack on its soldiers in Jordan.
Israel also attacked targets in Syria twice this week. On Friday, Israeli strikes killed three pro-Iranian fighters south of Damascus, according to the Observatory, with Iranian media reporting that a Revolutionary Guards adviser was among the dead.
Last Monday, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed eight people, including pro-Iran fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
During more than a decade of Syria’s civil war, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in the country, primarily targeting Iranian-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions.
But such attacks have intensified since the start of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Israel rarely comments on individual attacks on Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence there.
Since 2011, Syria has experienced a bloody conflict that has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions.
