Israel Bombs Syria Twice in 24 Hours

Israel bombed a vehicle in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights on Friday morning, killing four men it claims were responsible for rockets fired into Israel on Thursday, Ynet reports.

Israeli forces also bombed at least 14 sites in Syria on Thursday after the four rockets landed in the Galilee region of northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights earlier that day.

Those rockets resulted in no Israeli casualties. Although Israel blames the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that group has denied all responsibility, reports Haaretz. Thursday’s Israeli airstrikes targeted government-controlled areas in the 30 percent of the Golan Heights still under Syrian control. According to Syrian state media, the attack left one dead and seven injured.

In a statement, an Israeli military spokesperson said that “the army sees [the Syrian government] as responsible for the fire, and it will pay the price for it.” Israel has launched airstrikes in Syria several times since the uprising began in 2011. In January, Israel bombed and killed six high-ranking Hezbollah members and an Iranian general in the Golan Heights.

ISIS Razes Christian Monastery

The Islamic State (ISIS) has destroyed a Christian monastery in a village in the Homs province of western Syria. The group also transferred dozens of Christian captives that it had kidnapped earlier this month, Reuters reports.

Qaryatain, the village, is strategically important to ISIS because it is situated along a key road that links Palmyra to the Qalamoun Mountains, where the militants have been battling against Syrian government forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for months.

ISIS had captured an estimated 230 Christians after taking over the area in early August, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Of those, 48 detainees have been released and more than 100 others were transferred to Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold.

Douma Deems Itself a ‘Disaster Zone’ Following Government Airstrikes

After being bombed by Syrian government forces on Sunday, the Damascus-area town of Douma declared itself a “disaster zone” and called for the Red Cross to be allowed access to the besieged area in order to provide humanitarian aid.

More than 110 civilians were killed during the government airstrikes in what is one of the bloodiest incidents in Syria’s ongoing civil war, reports the Guardian. More than 500 people were also injured.

“As a result of the humanitarian catastrophe, we in the local council for the city of Douma declare it a disaster area according to international, humanitarian and U.N. standards,” a local council wrote in a statement.

Douma, held by Syrian opposition forces, was already suffering from a lack of medicine and other humanitarian supplies as a result of a government-imposed siege, adds the Guardian.

Recommended Reads:

• VICE News: What We Learned While Embedded with Kurdish Forces Clearing the Islamic State from Hasakah

• The Guardian: Omar Souleyman: The Syrian Wedding Singer Wooing the West

• Time: Controversial Campaign to Buy Back ISIS Sex Slaves Hits Funding Milestone

• Business Insider: The U.S. is Going After ISIS’ Most Devastating Weapon

• The Independent: War with ISIS: Is Turkey’s Buffer Zone in Syria a Matter of Self-Defense – or Just Anti-Kurd?

Photo: U.N. officers in Quneitra, the crossing between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. (Associated Press)