Israeli air strike hits residential building in Damascus

Israel's military on Thursday launched an air strike on a residential building on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus that it said was a command centre used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

It claimed the site was used "to plan and direct terrorist activities" against Israel and vowed to “respond forcefully” to the presence of Palestinian militant groups inside Syria.

"A short while ago, the IAF conducted an intelligence-based strike on a terrorist command centre belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organisation in Damascus," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Israel struck a building in the suburb of Dummar, north-west of the capital, Syrian state media reported. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said one person was killed in the attack.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al Shara that there would be “air force planes circling above him and attacking terrorist targets” if “terrorist activity is organised against Israel”.

"There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel – whether in Damascus or anywhere else. We will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel," Mr Katz said in a statement.

Israel carried out hundreds of strikes of Syria during the civil war, which broke out in 2011, mainly on government forces and Iran-linked targets.

The latest attack came two days after Israel struck southern Syria, attacking what it said were air defence systems and other military sites to "eliminate future threats".

Israel has carried out repeated air strikes in Syria and sent troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, after rebel forces led by Mr Al Shara's Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group overthrew former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in December.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the new Syrian government's forces near its territory.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said world leaders should be wary of the new leadership in Syria, describing them as a "jihadist group".

HTS has its roots in Al Qaeda and is still listed as a terrorist organisation by countries including the US, although it has sought to moderate its image in recent years.

After years of isolation under Mr Al Assad, diplomats from the west and Syria's neighbours have reached out to the country's new leaders. Canada and the EU have eased sanctions imposed on the Assad regime, saying they want to help the country to rebuild after years of conflict.