July 2025 Damascus airstrikes

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LocationDamascus, Syria
Date16 July 2025
c. 3 p.m. (UTC+3)
Target Syrian Armed Forces
Attack type
Airstrikes
July 2025 Damascus airstrikes
Part of the 2025 Southern Syria clashes
Damascus is located in Syria
Damascus
Damascus
LocationDamascus, Syria
Date16 July 2025
c. 3 p.m. (UTC+3)
Target Syrian Armed Forces
Attack type
Airstrikes
Deaths5+
Injured34+
Perpetrator
MotiveDestabilize Syria, claiming to defend the Druze minority

On 16 July 2025, Israel conducted airstrikes on several government buildings in Damascus, Syria, including the Syrian military headquarters and the vicinity of the presidential palace. The strikes killed at least 3 people and injured another 34. Israel said that it had struck the buildings as a "warning" in defense of the Druze amid the July 2025 Southern Syria clashes. Israel had invaded parts of Syria in December 2024 and proposed a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, forbidding Syrian troops from moving there.[1]

Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel took advantage of the power vacuum caused by the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to carry out an aerial bombing campaign to cripple the Syrian Army and invade parts of Syria and occupy several hundred square miles of territory,[2] declaring the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Ba'athist Syria to be void.[3] Despite engaging in peace talks brokered by the United States aimed at ceasing hostilities and normalizing relations between the two nations in late June 2025,[4] Israel had continued to pledge to "protect the Syrian Druze" and warn that it would conduct strikes on Syria if its troops entered the three southern governorates it declared to be demilitarized zones — Quneitra, Daraa, and Suwayda.[5][1]

On 13 July 2025, clashes erupted between Druze and Bedouin armed groups in Suwayda, resulting in the deaths of at least 200 people. Following the Syrian transitional government's decision to deploy the Syrian Armed Forces to the region to restore order, Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri called for armed resistance against the government and the Bedouin and asked Israel to "save Suwayda."[6][7] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently ordered strikes on Syrian forces and weapons entering Suwayda, saying the government "intended to use them against the Druze."[8]

Airstrikes

On 16 July 2025, at around 15:00 AST, Israeli fighter jets launched four airstrikes[9] on Damascus, damaging the Army General Command and defense ministry buildings adjacent to Umayyad Square, as well as the vicinity of the presidential palace, causing "extensive" damage in central Damascus according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.[5][10] The defense ministry was struck twice, causing the collapse of four floors of the buildings and ruining two of its facades, and its entrance.[11]

Israel said Syrian commanders in the military headquarters were directing government forces in Suwayda, while the strike on the presidential palace's vicinity served as a "warning" to the government to withdraw from Suwayda.[5] The Syrian Ministry of Health reported at least three deaths and another 34 injuries.[12] A Syrian medical source said the strikes killed five members of the security forces.[13]

Aftermath

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References

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