Israel Carries Out Strikes Near Damascus

Smoke rising over the capital, Damascus, after an Israeli raid in 2022 (File- Reuters)
Smoke rising over the capital, Damascus, after an Israeli raid in 2022 (File- Reuters)
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Israel Carries Out Strikes Near Damascus

Smoke rising over the capital, Damascus, after an Israeli raid in 2022 (File- Reuters)
Smoke rising over the capital, Damascus, after an Israeli raid in 2022 (File- Reuters)

Israel carried out air strikes near Syria's capital Damascus late Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

"At around 23:05 (2105 GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault... targeting various points on the outskirts of Damascus," a security source told the agency, AFP reported.

"Our anti-aircraft defences shot down some missiles while others caused limited material damage."

An AFP correspondent reported strong explosions in the suburbs of Damascus, which have been previously targeted by strikes that Syrian authorities have blamed on Israel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted "Hezbollah sites" in the Sayeda Zeinab district and near Damascus airport.

The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident, but said separately that shots had been fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel on Sunday evening.

"The army retaliated by targeting the source of the fire. Earlier in the day, we had struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell," it said in a statement.

Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon on Sunday, where he spoke of the need "to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority".

"It can also come in the form of a strike and war," he said.



Israel Is Ramping up Annexation of West Bank, UN Rights Chief Says 

Israeli army vehicles block a road during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 March 2025. (EPA)
Israeli army vehicles block a road during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 March 2025. (EPA)
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Israel Is Ramping up Annexation of West Bank, UN Rights Chief Says 

Israeli army vehicles block a road during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 March 2025. (EPA)
Israeli army vehicles block a road during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 March 2025. (EPA)

Israel has significantly expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the State of Israel, in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.

The report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later this month comes amid growing fears of annexation amid US policy shifts under President Donald Trump and new settler outposts in areas of the West Bank seen as part of a future Palestinian state.

"The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime," UN High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report, urging the international community to take meaningful action on Israel’s advancing settlement.

"Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers," he said.

Israel disengaged from the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year, alleging a chronic anti-Israeli bias. Its military says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting suspected militants.