Israeli airstrikes on a western neighbourhood of the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 15 people on Thursday, Syrian state media said.
The news agency, SANA, said the airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya northwest of the capital struck two buildings, damaging a five-storey building.
Another 16 people were said to have been injured.
The Israeli military said that it had hit infrastructure sites and command centres of the Islamic Jihad militant group in Syria, and had "inflicted significant damage to the terrorist organisation's command centre and to its operatives." Islamic Jihad is the second-largest militant group in Gaza.
The airstrikes in Damascus and the nearby suburb came shortly before Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was scheduled to meet in the Syrian capital with representatives of Palestinian factions at the Iranian Embassy in Mazzeh.
The Israeli military said that Islamic Jihad had participated alongside Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, in the October 7, 2023 terror attacks on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war in the Middle East.
The military "will continue to operate against the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization wherever necessary," it said.
An official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Group told the Associated Press that the strike in Mazzeh targeted one of their offices, and that several members of the group were killed.
Syria's state news agency said that the country's air defences were activated against a "hostile target" south of the central city of Homs. It gave no further details.
Tehran has been a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government since a 2011 uprising turned into a full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favour.
Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad's side.
Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of US dollars.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of neighbouring Lebanon's Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.
