Israeli strike kills 23 people including PIJ leaders in Syria

Two senior figures in Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed by an Israeli strike in Syria on November 14th, a source from the group said according to the Arab News via AFP.

The source AFP on November 16th that the strike on Qudsaya killed Abdel Aziz Minawi, part PIJ’s political bureau, and foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa. They added that another member was killed, and that the strike targeted a building housing a PIJ office in Syria.

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Israel claimed responsibility for the strike, saying they targeted Islamic Jihad, breaking a trend of rarely claiming strikes on Syria. However, when contacted by AFP on Saturday, Israel’s army declined to comment on the two leaders’ deaths.

The strikes in and around Damascus, including Qudsaya which is 7km away from the capital, killed 23 people, according to the UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

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13 people including civilians and fighters were killed in a strike on the Damascus district of Mazzeh, the Observatory stated, adding that an attack on the capital’s outskirts killed 10 PIJ members. The district was struck again on November 15th according to Syrian state media.

AFP