Israel has claimed to struck bases of the Islamic Jihad militant group near the Syrian capital Damascus. Syria, however, rejected the claims saying its air defences shot down enemy missiles. The Israeli army said in a statement yesterday that fighter jets struck Islamic Jihad terror targets south of Damascus following rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad operates in both the Palestinian territories and Syria and fired more than 20 rockets from Gaza yesterday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks were near the Damascus international airport. The Syrian state news agency Sana said that most of the enemy missiles were shot down before reaching their targets. It stressed that no airport was struck.

Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting government forces as well as allied Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters. However, it is rare for them to claim such strikes directly.