Two people were wounded in <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/syria/2022/05/21/three-killed-in-israeli-aggression-targeting-southern-damascus/" target="_blank">Israeli air strikes</a> on Syria's western coast on Saturday, the Syrian Defence Ministry said. “At around 6.30am the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression with several rockets from the Mediterranean west of Lebanon's city of Tripoli,” the ministry tweeted. It said the strikes targeted poultry farms near the town of Al Hamidiyah, south of the port city of Tartus. The attack injured two civilians, one of them a woman, and caused some material damage, the ministry said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack, saying it targeted hangars that were used in the past for raising animals, and “are likely used by Hezbollah militarily and commercially”. Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, aiming at government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters of Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah. Last month Israeli strikes on Damascus International Airport left its runways unusable for weeks. Besides the extensive damage caused to civilian and military runways, the British-based observatory said the strikes had targeted nearby warehouses used as weapons depots by Iran and Hezbollah. While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of them. The Israeli military says they are necessary to stop its enemy Iran gaining a foothold on its doorstep. The conflict in Syria has killed nearly half a million people and forced about half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.
