Powerful airstrikes shook Damascus on Wednesday as Israel targeted Syria’s Defense Ministry, vowed to destroy Syrian government forces it said were attacking Druze communities in southern Syria, and demanded they withdraw.
Reporters heard warplanes swoop low over the capital and unleash a series of massive strikes on central Damascus. The cityscape was blanketed in smoke with a thick plume rising from the Defense Ministry.
Israel’s army said it had struck a “military target” in the area of Syria’s presidential palace, after earlier announcing it had hit the military headquarters in the capital. Shortly before the massive blasts, Defense Minister Israel Katz had said “painful blows will come.”