Israel's military on Wednesday launched a fresh attack on targets deep inside Syria, which reportedly left civilian casualties, according to state media.
State sources identified that it was a neighborhood that was struck, while the anti-Assad opposition outlet Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes targeted "at least one military site... in the eastern countryside of Homs, causing plumes of smoke to rise."
Syrian government sources said the Israeli strike killed a girl and wounded ten civilians. Gruesome images circulated on social media which purport to show the deceased child's badly maimed body.
"The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Lebanon, targeting a central site and a residential building in Baniyas city in the coastal region, killing a girl and wounding 10 civilians," a Syrian defense ministry statement said.
"Syrian air defense intercepts enemy targets in the skies of the city of Homs," the official SANA news agency also reported.
Israeli media sources regularly say that such air raids into Syria, which typically involve Israeli aircraft firing from over Lebanese airspace in order to avoid triggering Syria's anti-air systems, target Hezbollah and Iranian positions.
But Syria has at the same time lodged repeat complaints to the United Nations that Israel is committing aggression against a sovereign state, and that very often civilians are killed and property and buildings left destroyed. These complaints tend to fall on deaf ears in the West, which has long waged a regime change war against President Bashar al-Assad. Israel was also part of this covert campaign, which saw the anti-Assad axis arm, train, and fund various al-Qaeda and jihadist groups.
In the initial days and weeks after Oct.7, Syria had lobbed several rockets toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which left no casualties. Much of the Syrian populace has meanwhile become frustrated and expressed growing anger that the Russian military, which has long had a significant presence inside Syria (especially since 2015), has not done more to try and intercept inbound Israeli jets.
Tensions are soaring especially in the wake of Israel's April 1st brazen attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus, which left a high ranking IRGC General and several other Iranian officers dead.
