Syrian air defences were active early on Wednesday as Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles at military positions near the capital Damascus, state media reported.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
State media quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying that the missiles were fired from northern Israel shortly after midnight and that most of them were shot down.
It said the military was still looking into the “results of the aggression".
The attacks came hours after the Israeli military said an Israeli drone crashed on the Syrian side of the border on Tuesday, and that an investigation was opened into the case.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said several missiles struck areas near Damascus International Airport on the southern edge of the capital, and several suburbs.
It said the areas hit host Syrian military positions as well as some of Iran-backed fighters.
There was no comment from the Israeli military on the attacks near Damascus.
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Syrians stand on top of their gas canisters as they wait for a refill in front of a gas lorry provider in Kafranbel, Idlib province. Violence across Syria has resulted in shortages in gas, water and electricity. -
A banker stacks packed Syrian lira bills at the Central Bank in Damascus on August 25, 2011. US sanctions have forced Syria to stop all transactions in US dollars, with the country turning completely to euro deals, the governor of the Central Bank Adib Mayaleh told the AFP during an interview. -
Farmers spread around wheat kernels unloaded from a combine harvester before being packaged into sacks, in a field in the countryside of al-Kaswa, south of Syria's capital Damascus on June 18, 2020. - Heavy rain and reduced violence provided a relief to Syrian farmers with a good harvest this year, as a tanking economy leaves millions hungry across his war-torn country. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, Syria produced more than 4.1 million tonnes of wheat, enough to feed its entire population. But production plunged to record lows during the war, boosting reliance on imports, mainly from regime ally Russia. -
Vehicles queue at a gas station waiting to fill-up in the capital in Damascus on February 28, 2012. Syria will exhaust its foreign currency reserves in three to five months, sparking crisis in an economy reeling from sanctions over its crackdown on protests, a Western diplomat told reporters in London last week. AFP PHOTO/ANWAR AMRO -
Syrians shop for clothes at a flea market in the capital Damascus on May 17, 2020, amid severe economic crisis that has been compounded by a coronavirus lockdown. - Prices have doubled over the past year, while the Syrian pound has reached record lows against the dollar, further driving up inflation. With most of the population living in poverty, Syrians have increasingly turned to flea markets to purchase clothes at a reasonable price. -
A handout picture released by the local news site Suwayda 24 shows Syrians chanting anti-government slogans as they protest the country's deteriorating economic conditions and corruption, in the southern city of Suwaida on June 9, 2020. -
A handout picture released by the local news site Suwayda 24 shows Syrians chanting anti-government slogans as they protest the country's deteriorating economic conditions and corruption, in the southern city of Suwaida on June 9, 2020.
It was the latest attack on Syria since April 14, when missiles hit Syrian army positions near Damascus.
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
It has acknowledged, however, that it aims for the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has fighters in Syria.
Israel says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for the militias.
Israel justifies its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria by saying that an Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line.
