Ghassan Mamouli, a consultant from the Damascus authorities, inspects the injury on the website of an Israeli airstrike on Thursday.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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Emily Garthwaite for NPR
DAMASCUS — An Israeli airstrike focused an residence constructing in a residential neighborhood within the Syrian capital on Thursday, aiming at what Israel stated was a Palestinian militant “command center.”
Neighbors within the constructing within the upscale Dumar neighborhood stated the residence had been vacant for a number of years. A Syrian housekeeper in an residence subsequent door was significantly injured within the assault.
“It’s unacceptable that whenever they want to attack someone, they attack a residential area,” stated Mohammad Hourani, a 40-year-old businessman, standing in his sister’s broken residence subsequent door to the flat gutted by an airstrike. “We are asking the president for a full investigation.”
The residence constructing was in an upscale neighborhood with well-kept buildings and enormous gardens in north Damascus.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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Emily Garthwaite for NPR
He stated the housekeeper, who was hanging laundry on the balcony on the time, had been significantly injured and brought to the hospital with a head wound.
Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on Syrian army bases and weapons dumps after the autumn of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December, saying the assaults have been to stop weapons moving into the fingers of extremist teams. However strikes on the capital itself have been uncommon for the reason that insurgent motion that toppled Assad took energy in December.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated the goal on Thursday was what he known as the headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Damascus.
“We are doing this because we have a clear policy: whoever attacks us or plans to attack us, we strike them,” he stated.
Israel’s army stated in an announcement that the Israeli air drive had “conducted an intelligence-based strike on a terrorist command center” belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. “The command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against the State of Israel,” the assertion stated.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Muhammad al-Haj Musa, denied that the constructing was a command heart, writing on Telegram that Israel had “targeted an empty house, not a leadership headquarters for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement.”
Hourani stated {that a} member of the Palestinian resistance had lived within the focused residence 10 years in the past, however the flat had been empty for years.
A Syrian oil firm worker with workplaces in the identical advanced additionally stated the residence that was attacked had been vacant for a number of years.
All of the residence home windows have been shattered and the metallic doorways to the balcony twisted and thrown off their hinges.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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Osama Mushail, the oil firm consultant, stated he witnessed the airstrike. A video he took of the speedy aftermath confirmed a seemingly unconscious girl being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance.
The residence constructing was in an upscale neighborhood with well-kept buildings and enormous gardens in north Damascus. Virtually two hours after the airstrike, vapor trails from Israeli fighter jets have been nonetheless seen.
Hourani stated the wounded housekeeper has seven kids. “She might die,” he stated. “Who is going to feed her children?”
He stated his three-year-old nephew, who lived within the residence subsequent door to the gutted flat, was in kindergarten on the time of the strike.
A big African gray parrot perched immobile in a cage on the kitchen counter, blood seeping from its wing feathers and its cage affected by damaged glass.
A resident’s pet parrot suffered a bloodied wing through the airstrike.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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Emily Garthwaite for NPR
Amongst shards of glass on the kitchen counters have been remnants of a meal being ready, together with a child-size portion of fried hen. All of the residence home windows have been shattered and the metallic doorways to the balcony twisted and thrown off their hinges.
Dozens of masked safety personnel from the interim Syrian authorities crowded across the entrance to the constructing. The Syrian authorities, which has stated it doesn’t view Israel as an enemy, had no speedy touch upon the assault.
Israel has stepped up incursions into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and airstrikes within the south of the nation up to now a number of weeks.
