Israel defence minister confirms air strike in Damascus / Photo: LOUAI BESHARA - AFP
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Israel defence minister confirms air strike in Damascus
Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Israeli Air Force conducted an air strike in Damascus on Thursday, following reports from a war monitor that an Israeli raid had killed one person in Syria's capital.
In a separate statement, Israel's military said it had targeted a "terrorist command centre" in Damascus belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which fought alongside Hamas in Gaza against Israel.
"There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel -- whether in Damascus or anywhere else. We will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel," Katz said in a statement.
Syrian state media said that Israel had struck a building in Damascus.
Israel's military said, "The command centre was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against the state of Israel."
It said the military "will not allow terrorist organisations to entrench themselves in Syrian territory and operate against the state of Israel, and will respond forcefully to any such entrenchment."
A source in the Islamic Jihad said a building belonging to the group had been hit by Israeli jets, adding there were "martyrs and wounded" in the strike.
"Israeli aircraft targeted a building with two missiles in... Damascus, killing at least one person," the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
On Tuesday Israel's military said warplanes struck southern Syria, targeting air defence systems and other military sites, "to eliminate future threats".
- Hundreds of air strikes -
Since the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.
Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the toppling of Assad, has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. It is still listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and other governments
HTS has sought to moderate its image in recent years.
After years of diplomatic isolation under Assad, diplomats from the West and Syria's neighbours have reached out to Syria's new rulers. Saying they want to help the war-battered country rebuild, Canada and the European Union have eased sanctions that were imposed on Assad's government.
Even before Assad's fall, during Syria's civil war which broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the neighbouring country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.
H.Raes--JdB
