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Israeli aircraft have attacked two sites linked to Hezbollah near Damascus, two sources in the opposition to President Bashar Al Assad said on Monday.
One of the strikes on Sunday hit a building in the city of Dimas, the sources said. The city is between Damascus and the Lebanese border, a link in Iranian weapons transfers to Hezbollah.
The strikes were the latest attack on Iranian-linked targets in Syria amid intensified Israeli operations that began following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Official Syrian media quoted an army official as saying two soldiers were wounded on Sunday in missile attacks by Israeli planes "on multiple locations on the outskirts of the capital".
The official said that air defences "repelled the missiles off the aggressor and downed a number of them."
Another attack hit a compound in the southern Damascus suburb of Saida Zaina, home to a Shiite shrine, the opposition sources said. The Lebanese militant group said one of the reasons it intervened in the Syrian civil war was to protect the site.
Hezbollah works with Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to oversee an array of domestic and foreign militias in Syria.
They have posed an increased threat to Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights and to US forces in eastern Syria.
On December 9, pro-Hezbollah media reported three Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Qunaitera, a governorate between Damascus and the Golan Heights.
Israel has increased its air raids on Iranian installations and supply lines in Syria since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.
Since the Gaza war broke out, air strikes have hit the Damascus and Aleppo airports, as well as targets linked to Hezbollah.
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
