Israeli Missiles Fall Near Capital for Second Time in Four Days

Syrian state media said early Tuesday that missiles launched by the Israeli military targeted a military facility outside the Syrian capital, the Associated Press reported.

The state-run SANA news agency said that Syrian air defenses intercepted three of the missiles during the attack, which took place at around 11:30 p.m. on Monday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or material damage.

The strikes targeted the suburb of Jamraya, which contains a government research center, the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. According to Reuters, the facility was previously hit by what was believed to be an Israeli attack in 2013.

Monday’s is the second such attack by Israel in less than four days. On Saturday Syria said that Israel had targeted a military facility south of Damascus.

Israel has carried out more than 100 attacks targeting arms shipments for the Syrian army and the Lebanese Hezbollah since the start of the conflict.

Israeli officials have declined to comment on recent attacks but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran against military expansion in Syria only hours after the strike took place on Saturday.

“We will not allow this regime to establish a military presence in Syria, as its declared purpose, for destroying our state,” he said in a video tweet published Saturday night.

Syrian Government Undecided on Whether to Return to Geneva Talks

The Syrian government’s delegation to Geneva is still undecided on whether it will return to the eighth round of peace talks with the opposition in the Swiss city, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday.

On Friday, the government’s negotiators pulled out from talks. Chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari said that there will be no progress as long as the Syrian opposition insists on removing President Bashar al-Assad before the start of a political transition. He said, however, that the decision to return to peace talks this week was ultimately for Damascus to make.

“For the time being there has been no final decision. Damascus is still thinking about the feasibility of its participation,” an unidentified government source told AFP on condition of anonymity, in an indication that talks will be put on hold.

The office of U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura did not announce whether talks would resume this week.

Negotiations in Geneva were expected to run until December 15.

Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition’s unified delegation to Geneva has described the Syrian government’s pullout from talks as an embarrassment to Russia, according to Reuters.

“I don’t think that those who support the regime are happy with such a position being taken by the regime. This is an embarrassment to Russia,” opposition spokesperson Yahya al-Aridi said on Monday from the hotel where the opposition delegation is staying in Geneva.

“We understand the Russian position now. They are … in a hurry to find a solution.”

Spike in Casualties in Eastern Ghouta as Airstrikes Continue

At least 27 people have been killed and dozens more injured in two days of fierce shelling and airstrikes by Syrian government and Russian warplanes on a rebel enclave outside the capital, Reuters reported on Monday.

Roughly 30 airstrikes struck several districts in the besieged Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus over a 24-hour period, Reuters said.

An airstrike on a marketplace killed 17 people in the town of Hamouriyah, Reuters said, citing civil defense rescue workers. Four others were killed in the town of Arbin and the remaining casualties perished in strikes on the towns of Misraba and Harasta.

Most of the attacks took place on Sunday. The SOHR said that the casualties in Sunday’s attacks were the “biggest daily death toll since the stepped-up strikes began 20 days ago,” according to Reuters.

The SOHR claims that 200 civilians have been killed in airstrikes since the government stepped up its attacks on the rebel bastion last month.

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