Israeli Airstrikes Target Syrian Military Sites in Damascus and Southern Syria

On July 16, 2025, following an escalation, Israeli warplanes launched an intensified air campaign across southern Syria. The strikes targeted the Syrian Army General Command headquarters and the area near the presidential palace in central Damascus. Syrian health authorities reported one civilian death and 18 injuries resulting from the attacks, which included at least five separate air raids in the capital. Footage from local television showed smoke rising from Umayyad Square, the location of the army's main command building.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported significant damage to parts of the headquarters and defense authorities. Additional strikes hit buildings in the upscale al-Malki neighborhood and near the Tishreen Palace. The fate of high-ranking officials within the targeted facilities remained unknown. An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed the operation, stating that the military headquarters in Damascus was a site from which Syrian regime commanders directed combat operations and deployed forces to the Sweida area. The spokesperson also confirmed a strike on a military target near the Syrian regime's presidential palace.

In southern Syria, Israeli strikes also targeted government forces' convoys and positions in Sweida province, resulting in the deaths of at least three senior officers in the village of al-Majimer, according to the observatory. Earlier raids in the region had claimed the lives of at least seven others, bringing the total death toll among government forces to 10. Additional air raids late Wednesday struck multiple locations in and around Daraa city, including the governor's palace, the military intelligence branch, and the civil registry office. Further strikes hit the 189th regiment in Jabab and the 132nd brigade west of Daraa, prompting ambulances to respond. In the Damascus countryside, Israeli jets also bombed the town of al-Kiswah, though no immediate casualties were reported.

These strikes followed the breakdown of a ceasefire between Syrian government forces and armed Druze groups in Sweida, the heartland of the Druze community in Syria. The war monitor reported that at least 248 people had been killed in the area since Sunday. The Druze, a religious and ethnic minority with origins in Islam, primarily reside in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, with smaller communities in Jordan and other locations. Israel conducted multiple waves of strikes in Damascus and Sweida, citing the objective of preventing harm to the Druze minority.