Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours
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Turkey's foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning Israel's attacks on Syria, saying they were a bid to "sabotage" the country's recovery after 14 years of war.
"The Syrian people have a historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world," the foreign ministry said.
"All stakeholders who support this opportunity should contribute to the Syrian Government's efforts to establish peace."
Israeli air strikes hit Damascus on Wednesday, reportedly targeting the Syrian defence ministry, military headquarters and the vicinity of the presidential palace.
Footage released on local TV showed an explosion in central Damascus, with huge plumes of smoke enveloping the area around Umayyad Square.
Sana, the Syrian state news service, said there were casualties but did not elaborate.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz posted footage of the bombing on X, writing: "heavy blows have started".
Read more: Israel bombs Syrian government buildings in Damascus
Syria's Health Ministry says at least nine people were injured in Israeli attacks on central Damascus, according to a report by Syria's state news agency Sana.
The Israeli army has said that several hundred Druze citizens of Israel crossed the border into Syria today following Israeli attacks on the southern Syrian city of Sweida.
The army added that it was working to return them to Israel, and that it had successfully barred Syrian Druze from entering Israel via the Hader area of southern Syria.
Chaos erupted at the Syrian-Israeli border following a series of Israeli attacks on the Druze-majority city of Sweida, prompting people to cross the border in both directions.
Syrian state news agency Sana has reported that there have been casualties following the Israeli strikes on Damascus, but did not state the number.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X that "heavy blows have started" as he shared a video showing a Syrian presenter fleeing for shelter as a new blast was heard in central Damascus.
החלו המכות הכואבות pic.twitter.com/1kJFFXoiua
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 16, 2025
The Israeli army has published footage of its latest strikes on the southern Syrian city of Sweida.
The army claims the second wave of strikes targeting the Druze-majority city struck Syrian tanks, rocket launchers and pickup trucks with mounted machine guns.
Syrian media reported that a number of civilians have been killed in the attacks.
Meanwhile, a fresh blast has been reported in Damascus, following a previous attack on the city earlier today that targeted the Syrian army headquarters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Druze citizens of Israel to refrain from crossing the border into Syria, as dozens were reported to have attempted crossing in both directions following the attacks.
"I have one request from you: You are the citizens of Israel. Don't pass the border," he said in a statement.
"You endanger your life. You can be murdered. You can be kidnapped, and you hurt the [Israeli army's] efforts. So I ask you – go back to your homes, let the [army] act," he added.
צה"ל ממשיך בתקיפות נגד מטרות צבאיות של המשטר הסורי בדרום סוריה
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 16, 2025
כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקפו ביממה האחרונה וממשיכים לתקוף טנקים, מטולי רקטות, אמצעי לחימה וטנדרים חמושים במקלעים כבדים, שעושים את דרכם למרחב א-סווידא שבדרום סוריה.
כמו כן, הותקפו צירי הגעה לביצוע חסימות במרחב.
צה״ל… pic.twitter.com/zcm2mflJ07
Another blast has been reported in Damascus following Israel's announcement that it was going to launch a fresh wave of attacks on the city.
We reported earlier that Israeli strikes targeted the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus and Israel launched further attacks on the southern city of Sweida.
At least 51 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera is reporting citing medical sources.
The toll includes 21 aid seekers, who Gaza's health ministry said were crushed in a stampede at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution centre in southern Gaza.
Chaotic scenes at the Israel-Syria border are being reported as people are attempting to cross the fence in both directions amid Israeli attacks on the Druze-majority city of Sweida in southern Syria.
The Syrian government deployed its forces in the area after several days of armed clashes between Druze factions and Bedouin tribes.
Israel, which said it was acting to protect the Druze community in Syria, launched two waves of strikes on Sweida on Wednesday following the collapse of a ceasefire between Druze armed groups and government forces.
The army said it had struck Syrian military targets, including rocket launchers, weapons and pickup trucks, adding that "routes were struck in order to block access to the area".
But according to Syrian state media, Israeli drones targeting the area caused civilian casualties.
The Israeli military said dozens of people attempted to enter Israeli territory from Syria, while a number of Israeli citizens crossed the border into Syria through the Majdal Shams area in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Haaretz is reporting that the Syrian village of Hader is sending vehicles to collect them.
The military said it was sending reinforcements to the border and that it was continuing "to monitor developments in readiness for defence and various scenarios".
Syria's presidency condemned the attacks as "criminal and illegal behaviour".
"We, in the Syrian government, strongly condemn these heinous acts and affirm our full commitment to investigating all related incidents and holding accountable all those proven to be involved," the presidency said in a statement on Telegram reported by state news agency Sana.
"Any party responsible for these acts, whether individuals or outlaw organisations, will be held accountable under strict legal measures, and we will not allow them to go unpunished."
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military will continue to strike Syrian government forces unless they withdraw from the Druze-majority city of Sweida.
"The Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces. As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on," Katz said in a statement.
Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 94 people in the last 24 hours and injured 252 others, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza has reported.
The health ministry also said earlier that 21 Palestinian aid seekers died from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas being fired at crowds gathered outside a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution site in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.
One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.
The GHF said that the stampede was precipitated by "elements within the crowd - armed and affiliated with Hamas", a claim which Hamas rejected as "false and misleading".
Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence.
On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.
Also on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a camp sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed nine people.
The latest casualties have pushed the overall toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza to 58,573 people, with another 139,607 wounded.
At least 43 Palestinians, including 21 aid seekers, have been killed across Gaza since dawn, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said 15 aid seekers died from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas that was fired at Palestinians seeking food at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution site in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The report said that an Israeli attack on a camp of displaced people in al-Mawasi killed nine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony in an ongoing corruption trial on Wednesday ended after less than three hours, following his request to cut it short due to "security reasons" related to the conflicts in Syria, Haaretz reported.
Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu testifies two times a week.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable coverage.
The Israeli military has confirmed carrying out a drone strike on the entrance gate of the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus a short while ago, saying it struck the entrance to the Syrian military headquarters.
Two civilians were injured in the Israeli strike on Damascus, according to Syrian media reports.
Israeli authorities have stripped the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality of administrative powers over the Ibrahimi Mosque and transferred them to a settler religious council, the Israel Hayom daily reported on Tuesday.
Describing the move as a "historic and unprecedented change", the newspaper said Israeli authorities plan to make "structural changes" at the site.
The Ibrahimi compound - known to Israelis as the Cave of the Patriarchs - was split into a mosque and synagogue following the 1994 massacre of dozens of Palestinian worshippers at the hands of American-Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein.
The report said that "this is the most dramatic work to be done at the site since 1994, as part of a fundamental changes taking place at the site".
Local Palestinians say the Israeli government has been slowly chipping away at Palestinian influence over the site, which, as the believed burial place of the prophet Abraham, is the second-holiest place in Judaism.
For the first time this year, Israeli authorities also refused to hand over all sections of the mosque to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, as is customary on the Friday of Ramadan. The move marked a significant departure from past practice.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the Israeli military will continue to strike Syrian government forces unless they withdraw from the Druze-majority city of Sweida.
“The Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces. As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on,” Katz said in a statement.
“The IDF will continue to strike regime forces until they withdraw from the area, and will soon escalate its response against the regime if the message is not understood,” he added.
The Syrian government deployed its forces in the area after several days of armed clashes between Druze factions and Bedouin tribes.
According to war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 248 people, including 138 Syrian security personnel, along with 18 allied Bedouin fighters and 92 members of the Druze minority, 28 of them civilians, were killed in the clashes.
