Syria’s two main airports out of service after Israel strikes
Humanitarian aid from Iran for survivors of a February earthquake is unloaded at Aleppo airport, after it reopened following a previous Israeli air strike in March
Damascus – Israeli strikes knocked Syria’s two main airports out of service on Thursday, Syrian state media said, in the first such attack since a weekend Hamas onslaught on Israel triggered fierce fighting.
Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the airports in the capital Damascus and northern city Aleppo, both of which are controlled by the government of war-torn Syria.
The “simultaneous” strikes “damaged landing strips in the two airports, putting them out of service”, state media said, citing an unidentified military source.
Flights were re-routed through Latakia airport on the Mediterranean coast, according to Syria’s transport ministry.
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, confirmed the strike on Damascus airport, saying it was intended to thwart “weapons deliveries from Iran”.
“These missiles, these drones are used against Israel,” he said in an interview with German broadcaster Die Welt.
The latest strikes came as Hamas and Israel traded heavy fire for a sixth day, after hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel on Saturday and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
They also came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, and hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a telephone call with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, called on Arab and Islamic countries to cooperate in confronting Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is due to tour the region in the coming days, including Iraq on Thursday and Lebanon later to promote Tehran’s initiatives.
The military source cited by Syrian state media described the strikes as a “desperate attempt” by Israel to “divert attention” away from the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the attack as an attempt by Israel to “export its crisis”.
During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch foe Iran, which supports Assad’s government, to expand its presence.
Iran, which backs Hamas, on Saturday celebrated Hamas’s assault on Israel, though it insisted it was not involved in it.