Israel is exploding airstrikes in residential areas in Damascus: NPR

Damascus — Israeli airstrikes targeted apartments in Syrian capital on Thursday in residential areas, aiming to say Israel is a “command centre” for Palestinian extremists.

Neighbors of the luxury Dumas area building said the apartment was vacant for several years. A Syrian housekeeper in the next apartment was seriously injured in the attack.

“It is unacceptable to attack a residential area whenever someone wants to attack someone,” said Mohammad Holani, a 40-year-old businessman, standing in the apartment that was damaged by her sister next to her flat, which was broken by an airstrike. “We are asking the President for a full investigation.”

He said the housekeeper, who was hanging laundry on the balcony at the time, was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital with a head wound.

Israel discarded Syrian military bases and weapons after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, saying the attack was to prevent weapons from being acquired by extremist groups. However, strikes against the capital itself have been rare since the rebel movement that overthrew Assad in December came to power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday’s target would be called the headquarters of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Damascus.

“We do this because we have a clear policy. Anyone who is going to attack us or attack us, we will attack them,” he said.

In a statement, Israeli military said the Israeli Air Force had carried out a “intelligence report-based strike” at the terrorist headquarters belonging to the Palestinian Islamic jihad. “The command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by Palestinian Islamic jihad against the state of Israel,” the statement said.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Muhammad al-Haji Musa denied the building was a command center, writing that Israel “targeted empty houses, not the leadership headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.”

Hourani said that while members of the Palestinian resistance lived in targeted apartments 10 years ago, the flats were empty for years.

An employee of a Syrian oil company with offices in the same complex said the apartments attacked had been vacant for several years.

Osama Masil, the head of the oil company, said he witnessed the airstrike. The video he filmed showed a seemingly unconscious woman being taken to an ambulance.

The apartment was located in a luxury neighbourhood in North Damascus with well-maintained buildings and large gardens. Almost two hours after the airstrike, steam traces from Israeli fighter jets were still visible.

Hourani said the injured housekeeper has seven children. “She might die,” he said. “Who will feed her children?”

He said his 3-year-old nephew, who lived in an apartment next to a gutted flat, was in kindergarten at the time of the strike.

A large, African grey parrot sits motionless in a kitchen counter cage, littered with broken glass, seeping through the wing wings.

The glass shards on the kitchen counter had leftovers that the meal was prepared, including a child-sized portion of the fried chicken. All apartment windows were shattered, and metal doors to the balcony were twisted and thrown out of the hinges.

Dozens of masked security guards from the interim Syrian government were crowded around the entrance to the building. The Syrian government says it does not consider Israel to be an enemy, but did not immediately comment on the attack.

Israel has intensified its invasions in the heights and airstrikes of Golan, occupied Syrian, in the country’s south.