Israeli Airstrikes Hit Western Syria, Killing One In First Attack In Nearly A Month

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Last Updated:May 31, 2025, 07:00 IST

Israel said the strikes were part of efforts to "maintain freedom of action in the region" and to "remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens."

Israeli airstrikes targeted western Syria marking the first such attack in nearly a month and reportedly killing one civilian, according to both the Israeli military and Syrian state media. Syrian state television reported that “a strike from Israeli occupation aircraft targeted sites close to the village of Zama in the Jableh countryside south of Latakia," while the state-run news agency SANA said the strike killed one civilian.

The Israeli military confirmed the operation, stating it had “struck weapon storage facilities containing coastal missiles that posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation, in the Latakia area of Syria." It added that components of surface-to-air missile systems were also hit.

The military said the strikes were part of efforts to “maintain freedom of action in the region" and to “remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, also reported that warplanes- believed to be Israeli- struck military sites near Tartus and Latakia, both along Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

The airstrikes come just weeks after Damascus announced it had entered indirect talks with Israel aimed at reducing tensions. The United States has also called for a “non-aggression agreement" between the two countries, which have technically been at war since 1948.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the country’s civil war began more than a decade ago.