Israel defense minister confirms air strike in Damascus

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Israeli Air Force conducted an air strike in Damascus on Thursday, following reports from a war monitor that an Israeli raid had killed one person in Syria's capital.

In a separate statement, Israel's military said it had targeted a "terrorist command center" in Damascus belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which fought alongside Hamas in Gaza against Israel.

"There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel -- whether in Damascus or anywhere else. We will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel," Katz said in a statement.

Syrian state media said that Israel had struck a building in Damascus.

Israel's military said, "The command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against the state of Israel."

It said the military "will not allow terrorist organizations to entrench themselves in Syrian territory and operate against the state of Israel, and will respond forcefully to any such entrenchment."

A source in the Islamic Jihad said a building belonging to the group had been hit by Israeli jets, adding there were "martyrs and wounded" in the strike.

"Israeli aircraft targeted a building with two missiles in... Damascus, killing at least one person," the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

On Tuesday Israel's military said warplanes struck southern Syria, targeting air defense systems and other military sites, "to eliminate future threats".

Hundreds of air strikes

Since the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarized, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new government near its territory.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the toppling of Assad, has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. It is still listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other governments

HTS has sought to moderate its image in recent years.

After years of diplomatic isolation under Assad, diplomats from the West and Syria's neighbors have reached out to Syria's new rulers. Saying they want to help the war-battered country rebuild, Canada and the European Union have eased sanctions that were imposed on Assad's government.

Even before Assad's fall, during Syria's civil war which broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the neighboring country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.