Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Two senior Islamic Jihad figures were killed in an Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, said a source from the Palestinian group which has fought against Israel in Gaza alongside Hamas.

The source told AFP on Saturday that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad's political bureau, and the group's foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.

The same source said the strike, targeting a building housing one of the group's offices in Syria, also killed another Islamic Jihad member.

Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for the one on Thursday, saying they targeted Islamic Jihad.

Contacted by AFP on Saturday, Israel's army however declined to comment on the two leaders' deaths.

Israeli strikes on Thursday in and around Damascus killed 23 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

Thirteen people, including civilians and Iran-backed fighters, were killed in a strike on the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh, the Observatory said, adding that an attack on the capital's outskirts killed 10 Islamic Jihad militants.

Syrian state media said Israel struck the Mazzeh district again on Friday.

Attacks blamed on or claimed by Israel have intensified in Syria, including in areas near the Lebanese border, mainly targeting bastions of the Lebanese movement Hizbollah.

Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. Earlier this week, the group released two video clips of Sasha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli hostage.