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.



Lebanese Begin Grim Task of Recovering Bodies from Rubble

 Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
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Lebanese Begin Grim Task of Recovering Bodies from Rubble

 Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for dead bodies through the rubble of a destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Ainata village, south Lebanon. (AP)

In the southern Lebanon border villages of Bint Jbeil and Ainata, where fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters took place, rescuers used excavators began searching on Wednesday for bodies under the rubble.

A woman in Ainata wrapped in black cried as she held a portrait her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter, who was killed in the fighting, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from a destroyed home.

The smell of death filled the air and several dead bodies could be seen inside houses and between trees. In the town of Kfar Hammam, rescuers recovered four bodies, according to Lebanese state media.

Meanwhile, families and politicians visited the graves of Hezbollah fighters buried in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek region.

Families with tears in their eyes paid respects to the dead and celebratory gunshots could be heard in the background Wednesday, the first day of a ceasefire between the group and Israel.

“The resistance (Hezbollah) will stay to defend Lebanon,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mokdad told reporters while visiting the graves. “We tell the enemy that the martyrs thwarted their plans for the Middle East.”

Several other Hezbollah members of parliament were present.