A girl died and 10 civilians were wounded in Baniyas after what Syria’s defence ministry described as an Israeli air attack on May 29, 2024. The strike hit a central site and a residential building in the Mediterranean coastal city, according to the ministry.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the girl’s death but put the number of wounded civilians at 20.
Agence France-Presse carried both accounts through Al-Monitor. The defence ministry said the attack had come from the direction of Lebanon and struck Syria’s coastal region.
Separate reports from Homs
In central Syria, the Observatory said another Israeli strike killed five fighters linked to Hezbollah. Three were Syrian and two were non-Syrian; all were described as working with the Iran-backed Lebanese movement.
The monitor reported at least one military target in Homs’s eastern countryside, with smoke rising from the site.
Earlier that Wednesday, official Syrian media said air defences had intercepted “enemy targets in the skies of the city of Homs.” SANA did not identify casualties in that initial account.
The civilian toll in Baniyas and the fighter deaths in Homs came from different authorities, and the reported number of injured civilians varied. They should not be collapsed into a single uncontested casualty figure.
The Britain-based Observatory supplied the account of the Homs deaths, while Syria’s defence ministry supplied the initial Baniyas casualty statement.
A wider campaign
Israel rarely commented on individual operations inside Syria. It had nevertheless said repeatedly that it would not permit Iran, its arch-enemy, to expand a military presence there.
Since Syria’s civil war began, Israel had conducted hundreds of strikes, primarily against army positions and Iran-backed combatants, including Hezbollah members.
The tempo increased after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and the Gaza war began, AFP reported. Hamas is backed by Iran, as is Hezbollah.
The Observatory had attributed another recent incident to Israel as well. It said a drone strike near the Lebanese border in central Syria killed two Hezbollah fighters on the preceding Saturday.
Syria’s own conflict supplied the backdrop. It erupted during 2011 when the Damascus authorities suppressed protests against the government.
By May 2024, the conflict’s toll exceeded half a million deaths, while millions of other people had been forced from their homes.
Sources
- Israeli airstrikes kill 4, including child, across Syria: Reports
- Syria says Israeli strike kills girl, wounds 10 civilians – AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012
