Israel Bombs Targets in Syria, and Keeps Up Strikes in Lebanon

Israeli fighter jets bombarded sites in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday that the military said were affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing at least 15 people and wounding 16 others, including women and children, according to Syrian state media.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said Israel struck the al-Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus around 3:20 p.m. local time, damaging several buildings.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the attack had “inflicted significant damage” to a command center belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militia backed by Iran. The military blamed the Syrian government for allowing the militia to operate from its territory.

For years, Israeli warplanes have quietly launched attacks in Syria in an effort, the military says, to prevent Iranian proxies like Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from operating there. Israel generally declines to comment on individual strikes, but over the past several weeks, Israeli officials have increasingly taken responsibility for the attacks.

“We are conducting deep strikes and striking frequently in Syria and along the Syria-Lebanon border to prevent weapons transfers to Hezbollah,” Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, said on Tuesday.

Iranian news media reported on Thursday that an Israeli missile had hit a building in Damascus close to where a prominent Iranian official, Ali Larijani, was meeting with the director of Syria’s National Security Committee. Mr. Larijani was not injured, according to the Khabar Online news outlet.