Rockets hit targets in the southwestern sector of Damascus shortly after midnight today, causing material damage, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported, according to which it was an Israeli attack.

This is the second Israeli missile strike in the Damascus area before 24 hours have passed. On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, two Syrian soldiers were injured in the previous raid.

Today “at 00:17 (local time and Greek time), the Israeli enemy launched an air strike by launching missiles from the occupied Syrian (Golan Heights), targeting positions on the outskirts of Damascus,” a military source told the SANA.

The source added that some of the missiles were shot down by Syrian air defenses and caused material damage.

SANA had earlier reported that “explosions were heard after midnight in the outskirts of Damascus”.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Israeli missiles targeted positions of the armed forces of the Syrian regime and organizations linked to Iran.

The NGO, which has a wide network of sources in the war-torn country, added that rockets destroyed a weapons and ammunition depot, with no casualties.

An AFP correspondent in Damascus reported that he was awakened by a powerful explosion. Correspondents of the Reuters news agency spoke of at least three powerful explosions.

Israel has launched six airstrikes in Syria this month, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two of the strikes targeted the airport in Aleppo, a city in northern Syria where groups linked to Iran have great influence. The first raid (March 7) resulted in the loss of three lives, the second (March 22) caused only material damage.

On February 19, 15 people were killed in an Israeli raid in Damascus, targeting a neighborhood where various security services are based, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Since war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes there, the vast majority of them from the air, against positions of the Syrian armed forces and their allies, Iranian and pro-Iranian armed groups, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah. He rarely confirms his operations in the context of this undeclared war, however he often declares that he will not allow Iran, his sworn enemy, to build a bridgehead or expand its influence in its neighboring country.

The highly complex war in Syria entered its 13th year earlier this month; it has claimed the lives of more than half a million people, turned millions more into internally displaced persons and refugees, and caused a massive economic and humanitarian crisis.