Israeli strikes kill four civilians in Syria

DAMASCUS: Four civilians, including two children, were killed by Israeli strikes on the Syrian province of Hama at dawn on Friday, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

Sana cited a Syrian military source as saying that the country’s air defences responded to Israeli missiles in the central province, "intercepting most" of them. It later said "the Israeli aggression resulted in the martyrdom of a family, including a father, mother and two children", adding another four people were wounded and three houses destroyed on the western edges of Hama city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli raids targeted Syrian military sites and resulted in the "destruction" of five of them in an area of Hama where Iran-backed fighters are present.

But the war monitor said the civilians were killed by "debris from one of the Syrian anti-aircraft defence missiles that fell on a house in a densely populated neighbourhood". The Israeli army rarely acknowledges individual raids on Syria and refused to comment on the latest reports when contacted by AFP on Friday.