Israel has attacked dozens of targets in Syria belonging to Iran’s al-Quds Forces and Bashar al-Assad’s army.
While reactions and figures varied between Israel, the Syrian regime, and the Syrian opposition, it was strange that ordinary Syrians kept silent on the social media websites and showed little interest in what was going on.
Israel
The Israeli government said the attack, “was carried out in response to the launching of rockets by Iranian forces from Syria’s territory into Israel, intending to strike Israeli territory,” according to a statement published by the Israeli forces, referring to a barrage of rockets launched towards the Golan Heights on Tuesday.
“We showed the Iranians we have the capabilities to react forcefully,” said a senior Israeli defense official on Wednesday morning, according to Haaretz. “We know they have sustained casualties and probably also fatalities.”
The Syrian Government
The Syrian Government, however, said that the Syrian air defenses, “foiled an intensive Israeli rocket assault that targeted the outskirts of Damascus, and destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets, while two civilians were martyred and others were injured due to the aggression”.
A military source told SANA that “At 01:20 a.m., Israeli warplanes fired several missiles from the direction of both the occupied Golan, and Marj Eyoun in Lebanon, targeting the outskirts of Damascus, and immediately our air defenses foiled the attack, intercepted the hostile missiles, and downed most of them before they reached their targets.”
“The work is still underway to examine the situation clearly and estimate the damages and losses caused by the aggression,” the source added.
A medical source at Qatana National Hospital told SANA’s reporter that, “A man and a woman were martyred while several others were injured due to the aggression on the town of Beit Saber in the Saasa area south-west Damascus”.
SANA’s reporter pointed out, “That the shrapnel of another missile hit a residential building in the suburb of Qudsayya, west of Damascus, injuring a girl”, adding that the building was also badly damaged.
SANA concluded that dozens of field and intelligence reports affirm the strong ties between the terrorist organizations and the Israeli enemy and their clear coordination, in addition to finding Israeli weapons inside the dens of the terrorist organizations in many areas.
Opposition
The major opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, has not issued any official position on the Israeli attacks. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group based in Britain, with a network of activists across Syria, said the strikes killed 23 people, including 15 non-Syrians. It said the dead included five Syrian troops, 16 Iranian and Iran-backed fighters, and two Syrian civilians.
The Observatory head, Rami Abdurrahman, said the Israeli airstrikes targeted arms depots belonging to Iran’s al-Quds Force in the Damascus suburbs of Kisweh and Qudsaya.
He added that several other areas were targeted in Wednesday’s strikes, including the al-Mezzeh airbase in western Damascus where air defense units are stationed.
Russia
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Wednesday that the Israeli airstrikes on Syria were a wrong move, and Moscow had contacted its allies about the incident, Interfax reported.
Reactions from the Syrian street
In the meantime, ordinary Syrians seemed less interested in the attacks. The Syrian Observer asked a number of Syrian citizens inside Syria about the lack of interest. One respondent said, “People do not care anymore. This is not our country.” Another asked, “Where are the S-300 that we got from the Russians? Why the Russian are silent? There is no meaning whatsoever to what is developing now in here.”
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Syrian Observer.
