An Israeli airstrike targeted the international airport in Aleppo, northern Syria, with the first casualty count of five injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, just 24 hours after identical raids targeting the same airport and this of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

“An Israeli airstrike from the direction of the sea hit the Aleppo airport,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the British-based NGO, which relies on a wide network of sources in the war-torn country, told AFP.

He did not specify whether the five wounded are military or civilians.

Syrian state media confirmed the strike, citing the Ministry of Defense, with state television speaking of an “Israeli attack targeting the international airport in Aleppo.”

Later, the Ministry of Defense announced that “around 23:35 (local time and Greek time), the Israeli enemy carried out an air strike targeting Aleppo International Airport, causing material damage to the airport and putting it out of service ».

At the same time, the ministry accused Israel of committing “crimes against the Palestinian people”, referring to the military operation in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the deadly attack by Hamas on October 7.

On Thursday, Israeli strikes were already recorded against the same airport and the one in Damascus, temporarily shutting them down, according to Syrian official media.

Yesterday’s strikes came hours after the airport in Aleppo was reopened, putting it out of business again, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier.

The results of the raid are being “assessed,” state news agency SANA said.

On Tuesday, for the first time since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the Israeli military announced that it had opened fire with mortars on Syria from the Golan Heights, returning “fire” against the area, which holds the Israel since 1967.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory since the outbreak of war in that country in 2011.

Its air force mainly targets forces backed by Iran and Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, allies of Damascus and sworn enemies of Israel, as well as Syrian army positions.

The airports of Damascus and Aleppo have been repeatedly bombed.

Israel rarely comments on the strikes it unleashes on Syria in public, however it declares that it will not allow Iran to build a bridgehead or expand its bases at its gates.