“At around 2:55 am this morning, the Israeli enemy launched a missile attack from the north of occupied Palestine, targeting our air defense sites in the southern region [of the country]. The aggression resulted in material damage,” state media SANA reported, citing a military source.
United Kingdom-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that loud explosions were heard early on Friday morning in the countryside of the southern Syrian province of Daraa, resulting from an Israeli airstrike that hit an air defense radar located between the city of Izraa and the town of Qarfa.
No casualties have been reported thus far according to SOHR.
The attack coincided with reports of alleged Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran’s Isfahan, a central Iranian city where several key nuclear sites are located, days after Iran’s unprecedented direct attack against Israel in retaliation for the deadly strike on its embassy in Damascus on April 1, which the Islamic Republic blames Israel for.
Iranian state media IRNA said early on Friday that “reports indicate that Iran's air defense has been activated in the skies of several provinces of the country,” adding that flights over Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz had been suspended, following Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reporting on "big explosions" being heard near Isfahan.
Hours later, IRNA reported that flight restrictions were lifted at Tehran airports, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) affiliated Tasnim news agency reporting that “no missile attack” had taken place, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirming that the Iranian nuclear facilities were not damaged.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has yet to comment on the attack.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its nearly 13-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which supports the Syrian army.
Israel has intensified its strikes on Syria since October 7. It has attacked Syrian territory at least 35 times since the start of the year, killing at least 129 people and wounding over 47 others, according to SOHR.
While it rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold there.
