Members of the Syrian security forces inspect a building bombed by Israel in Damascus, March 13, 2025. (Credit: Louai Beshara/AFP)
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Israeli Air Force conducted an air strike in Damascus on Thursday, with the military saying it had struck a "command center" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
A war monitor reported one person killed.
Islamic Jihad fought alongside Hamas against Israel in Gaza before a fragile truce began in January.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that such strikes would be carried out in the region against "whoever attacks us."
Syrian state media said Israel had struck a building in Damascus.
"There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel," Katz said in a statement. "We will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel."
Israel's military said the "command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" against Israel.
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.
Ismail Sindawi, Islamic Jihad's representative in Syria, told AFP the targeted building has been "closed for five years and nobody from the movement frequented it." Israel was just sending a message, Sindawi said.
Syria's official news agency SANA reported that three civilians were wounded, including one woman in critical condition. It said the strike targeted an office that had been "abandoned since the liberation of Damascus" when Islamist-led rebels in December toppled former President Bashar al-Assad.
An AFP photographer saw the facade of the three-story building completely destroyed and flames coming out from a balcony.
Netanyahu vowed to carry out more such strikes if needed, not just in Syria but also in Lebanon.
"We attacked an Islamic Jihad headquarters in the heart of Damascus. We did this because we have a clear policy: Whoever attacks us or plans to attack us, we strike them," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
"And this applies not only in Syria but everywhere, including Lebanon," where Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah reached a cease-fire in November after more than a year of conflict.
Hundreds of air strikes
On Tuesday Israel's military said warplanes struck southern Syria, targeting air defense systems and other military sites, "to eliminate future threats."
Since Assad's overthrow, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights.
Netanyahu has previously said southern Syria must be completely demilitarized, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.
The strike in Damascus came just before Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa hailed the start of a "new history" for his country. He signed into force a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transitional period and laying out rights for women and freedom of expression.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has repeatedly warned that world leaders should be wary of the new leadership in Syria, warning that a "jihadist group" was now ruling the country.
Islamist group Hay'at 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 organization by the United States and other governments
After years of diplomatic isolation under Assad, diplomats from the West and Syria's neighbors 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 neighboring country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.
