Several Arab media outlets reported a Tuesday night Israeli airstrike on in the al-Mazzah neighborhood in Damascus. The Saudi Al-Hadath channel reported that the target of the attack was a senior member of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is responsible for transporting and smuggling Iranian weapons into Lebanon. According to the Syrian Ministry of Defense, there are at least seven dead and about 11 wounded.
According to SANA, “seven civilians, among them children and women, were martyred Tuesday in an Israeli aggression that targeted a residential building at the al-Mazzah neighborhood in Damascus.”
The al-Mazzah municipality is one of the most modern and expensive areas of Damascus, especially the areas along the highway. It includes Damascus University and many foreign embassies. The presidential palace sits atop Mount Mazzah, overlooking all of Damascus.
“At nearly 8:15 PM on Tuesday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression with 3 missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a residential building at the densely-populated Mazzah neighborhood in Damascus, claiming the lives of 7 civilians, among them women and children, and injuring 11 others in an initial toll and causing huge material damages to properties,” a military source told SANA.
The source added that “works are underway to rescue others from under the debris.”
It seems to have become a pattern with Hezbollah bigwigs, being pulled out of debris.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported: “An Israeli strike targeted a building which commanders of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hezbollah frequent, and a car parked in front of the building in the al-Mazzah neighborhood in western Damascus. Meanwhile, ambulances were seen rushing to the targeted site, where the attack left four persons, including two of non-Syrian nationalities, dead.”
Al-Hadath suggested Israel is laboring to remove Hezbollah from the regional equation.
Hezbollah deputy leader, the yet-to-be-assassinated Sheikh Naim Qassem, on Tuesday spoke from an unknown location, and declared, “We support the political efforts led by (Parliament Speaker Nabih) Berri under the banner of achieving a ceasefire. Once the ceasefire is firmly established and diplomacy can reach it, all other details will be discussed and decisions will be made collaboratively.”
According to the French foreign ministry, Israel has set conditions for a ceasefire in Lebanon, chief among them the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal north of the Litani River.
