BEIRUT: Israeli air strikes on Wednesday near Syria’s capital Damascus killed three fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and wounded four others, a war monitor said.

Syrian state news agency SANA earlier reported two soldiers had been wounded in the strikes overnight Tuesday-Wednesday. It quoted a military source as saying the bombing targeted “certain positions in the vicinity of Damascus”.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the targets included warehouses used by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The non-government monitoring group, which has a vast network of sources in the war-torn country, said the strikes also targeted positions of the Syrian army’s elite Fourth Division near the airport in the town of Dimas.

UN cuts aid to Syrians in Jordan, citing funding shortfall

One Syrian pro-regime fighter and two foreign, Iran-affiliated combatants were killed in the strikes, the Observatory said.

The incident was the 20th Israeli raid so far this year, the Observatory said.

SANA earlier said most of the missiles had been intercepted by Syrian air defence systems, while the Observatory reported the raid had caused fires.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran to expand its footprint there.

‘Criminal policies’

Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”.

In a statement carried by SANA, it called on the United Nations and the Security Council to “take immediate action” to oblige Israel “to desist from these criminal policies”.

Tehran says it has sent military “advisers” to support the Syrian army during the war, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives.

Some of those Iranians stationed in Syria have been killed in Israeli strikes.

According to the Observatory, Israel in early July carried out air strikes targeting Hezbollah sites near the government-held city of Homs, killing a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Israeli strikes also targeted a Syrian air defence base in Tartus province, the war monitor said, reporting at least 20 Israeli raids so far this year.

UN cuts aid

The United Nations’ World Food Programme has announced it would reduce cash assistance to nearly 120,000 Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps, saying the move was “unavoidable as funds run precariously low”.

The UN logs about 650,000 Syrians in Jordan who fled their native country since war broke out, but Amman estimates their number at 1.3 million.

The WFP said in a statement that “further reductions in food assistance for refugees in Jordan have become unavoidable as funds run precariously low”.

The statement late on Tuesday added it was “compelled to reduce by one-third the monthly cash assistance for all 119,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari and Azraq camps”.

As of next month, the Syrian refugees in the two camps will receive “a reduced cash allowance of $21 per month per person” down from the current $32.

“Syrian refugees living in both camps have limited income sources with only 30 percent of adults working — mainly in temporary or seasonal jobs — while 57 per cent of camp residents say cash assistance is their only source of income,” the WFP said.

Dominik Bartsch, the UN refugee agency UNHCR’s representative in Jordan, warned on Wednesday of “serious consequences for refugees and host communities” if funding is not secured.

“Due to the funding gap, tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees are gradually being excluded from WFP’s assistance to prioritise the poorest families,” UNHCR said in a statement, urging “determined and coordinated action” by the international community.

The war in Syria has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions, including at least 5.5 million refugees hosted by neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkiye, Iraq and Egypt, according to the UN.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2023