Israel Strikes Syrian Airports In Damascus And Aleppo Amid War With Hamas: Report

New Delhi: Israel on Thursday knocked Syria's two main airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo out of service, news agency AFP reported citing Syrian state media. This is reportedly the first such attack since a weekend Hamas assault on Israel triggered fierce fighting.

According to AFP, Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at both the airports controlled by the government of war-torn Syria.

The "simultaneous" strikes damaged landing strips in the two airports, "putting them out of service", state news agency SANA said, citing a military source, reported AFP.

The latest strikes came as the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas raged for a sixth day, with attacks and counter-attacks from both sides. The conflict began on Saturday morning after Hamas, in a surprise assault, fired 5,000 rockets into Israel and initiated a coordinated attack on the Jewish state from air, land, and sea.

In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and has been bombarding Gaza since then.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Thursday, and hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a telephone call with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, called on Arab and Islamic countries to cooperate in confronting Israel, the news agency reported.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops fired artillery and mortar shells towards Syria after rockets from southern Syria hit Israeli positions across the border.

According to Reuters, the strikes on the airports are intended to disrupt Iranian supply lines to Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions, reported AFP.