Israel Attacks Syria's Central Region and Baniyas City

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 29, 2024 shows damage caused inside an apartment in the coastal city of Baniyas, following what Syria's defense ministry said was an Israeli air strike. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 29, 2024 shows damage caused inside an apartment in the coastal city of Baniyas, following what Syria's defense ministry said was an Israeli air strike. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
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Israel Attacks Syria's Central Region and Baniyas City

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 29, 2024 shows damage caused inside an apartment in the coastal city of Baniyas, following what Syria's defense ministry said was an Israeli air strike. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 29, 2024 shows damage caused inside an apartment in the coastal city of Baniyas, following what Syria's defense ministry said was an Israeli air strike. (Photo by SANA / AFP)

Israel launched air attacks on Syria's central region as well as the coastal city of Baniyas, killing a child and injuring ten civilians, Syrian state media said on Wednesday citing a military source.
"At approximately 19:30 pm, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting a site in the central region and a residential building in Baniyas ... leading to the death of a girl, the injury of ten civilians," the source was quoted as saying.
Syrian state media reported earlier on Wednesday that the country's air defenses had intercepted "hostile targets" over Homs, without giving further details.
There was no immediate word on the incidents from Israel, which typically does not comment on specific reports of strikes in Syria, said Reuters.
For years Israel has been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.
Reported Israeli strikes on Syria have intensified sharply since the start of the war in Gaza last October.
In April, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel after a presumed Israeli strike that destroyed a building in Iran's embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.



Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Weather is compounding the challenges facing displaced people in Gaza, where heavy rains and dropping temperatures are making tents and other temporary shelters uninhabitable.

Government officials in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave said on Monday that nearly 10,000 tents had been swept away by flooding over the past two days, adding to their earlier warnings about the risks facing those sheltering in low-lying floodplains, including areas designated as humanitarian zones.

Um Mohammad Marouf, a mother who fled bombardments in northern Gaza and now is sheltering with her family in a Gaza City tent said the downpour had covered her children and left everyone wet and vulnerable.

“We have nothing to protect ourselves,” she said outside the United Nations-provided tent where she lives with 10 family members.

Marouf and others living in rows of cloth and nylon tents hung their drenched clothing on drying lines and re-erected their tarpaulin walls on Monday.

Officials from the Hamas-run government said that 81% of the 135,000 tents appeared unfit for shelter, based on recent assessments, and blamed Israel for preventing the entry of additional needed tents. They said many had been swept away by seawater or were inadequate to house displaced people as winter sets in.

The UNestimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services. Israeli evacuation warnings now cover around 90% of the territory.

“The first rains of the winter season mean even more suffering. Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding. The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote in a statement on X on Monday.