Ghassan Mamouli, a consultant from the Damascus authorities, inspects the injury on the web site of an Israeli airstrike on Thursday.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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Emily Garthwaite for NPR
DAMASCUS — An Israeli airstrike focused an condo constructing in a residential neighborhood within the Syrian capital on Thursday, aiming at what Israel stated was a Palestinian militant “command middle.”
Neighbors within the constructing within the upscale Dumar neighborhood stated the condo had been vacant for a number of years. A Syrian housekeeper in an condo subsequent door was significantly injured within the assault.
“It is unacceptable that at any time when they need to assault somebody, they assault a residential space,” stated Mohammad Hourani, a 40-year-old businessman, standing in his sister’s broken condo subsequent door to the flat gutted by an airstrike. “We’re asking the president for a full investigation.”
The condo constructing was in an upscale neighborhood with well-kept buildings and huge gardens in north Damascus.
Emily Garthwaite for NPR
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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 forestall weapons moving into the fingers of extremist teams. However strikes on the capital itself have been uncommon because the 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’re doing this as a result of we’ve a transparent coverage: whoever assaults us or plans to assault us, we strike them,” he stated.
Israel’s army stated in a press release that the Israeli air drive had “performed an intelligence-based strike on a terrorist command middle” belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. “The command middle was used to plan and direct terrorist actions by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in opposition to 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 middle, writing on Telegram that Israel had “focused an empty home, not a management headquarters for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Motion.”
Hourani stated {that a} member of the Palestinian resistance had lived within the focused condo 10 years in the past, however the flat had been empty for years.
A Syrian oil firm worker with places of work in the identical complicated additionally stated the condo that was attacked had been vacant for a number of years.
All of the condo home windows have been shattered and the metallic doorways to the balcony twisted and thrown off their hinges.
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Osama Mushail, the oil firm consultant, stated he witnessed the airstrike. A video he took of the fast aftermath confirmed a seemingly unconscious girl being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance.
The condo constructing was in an upscale neighborhood with well-kept buildings and huge gardens in north Damascus. Nearly two hours after the airstrike, vapor trails from Israeli fighter jets have been nonetheless seen.
Hourani stated the wounded housekeeper has seven kids. “She would possibly die,” he stated. “Who’s going to feed her kids?”
He stated his three-year-old nephew, who lived within the condo 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 plagued by damaged glass.
A resident’s pet parrot suffered a bloodied wing in the course of 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 condo 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 fast touch upon the assault.
Israel has stepped up incursions into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and airstrikes within the south of the nation previously a number of weeks.
