IDF strikes alleged Islamic Jihad nerve center in Damascus, said to be leader’s house
Member of terror group says Ziad Nakhaleh wasn’t home and building was ’empty’ when struck, though war monitor reports one person killed
Israeli fighter jets on Thursday struck a residential building that the military said served as a Damascus headquarters for Palestinian Islamic Jihad to plan and carry out terror activities.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor of unclear funding, said the targeted building was located in the suburb of Dummar, northwest of the capital, and was inhabited by Palestinians. It said one person was killed.
“The IDF will not allow terrorist organizations to entrench themselves in Syrian territory and operate against the State of Israel, and will respond forcefully to any such entrenchment,” the Israel Defense Forces said. It released footage of the strikes.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member at the scene of the airstrike in Syria told The Associated Press that the apartment that was targeted was the home of the terrorist organization’s leader Ziad Nakhaleh.
It was not immediately clear where Nakhaleh was, but he is believed to spend his time between Lebanon, Iran and Syria.
The PIJ member, Ismail Sindak, said the apartment had been empty for years, adding that Nakhaleh was not in Syria. Asked whether anyone was killed in the strike, Sindak said, “The house was empty.”
לפני זמן קצר, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון ואגף המודיעין תקפו מפקדת טרור של ארגון הטרור גא״פ בשטח דמשק, ממנה תכננו וניהלו פעולות טרור של הארגון.
צה״ל לא יאפשר לארגוני טרור להתבסס בשטח סוריה ולפעול כנגד מדינת ישראל ויפעל בעוצמה כנגד כל התבססות שכזאת>> pic.twitter.com/SHrMbQCbgU
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 13, 2025
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terror group sworn to Israel’s destruction, participated alongside Hamas in the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, in which over 5,000 terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, sparking the subsequent war.
PIJ, which was part of the Gaza ceasefire negotiated in January and currently up in the air, has held a number of the hostages, and likely continues to hold some of the remaining captives, of whom 24 are still believed to be alive. The bodies of 34 dead — as well as the body of a soldier killed in 2014 — are also held in the Strip.
Israel blasts ‘extreme Islamic’ Syrian leader
Defense Minister Israel Katz, confirming Thursday’s strike, said, “Wherever terror activity against Israel is organized, the extreme Islamic leader al-Jolani will find the Air Force aircraft flying above and striking terror targets.”
Katz was referring to Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, by his nom de guerre, which he used as the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, an Islamist offshoot of al-Qaeda.
“Islamic terrorism will not have immunity in Damascus nor anywhere else,” Katz added.
In the months since his coalition ousted longtime president Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa and his government have projected a moderate image, repeatedly declaring a commitment to protect minorities, including Jews, as well as Druze and Kurds, in the country.
The interim leader has objected to Israel’s continued military presence in southern Syria and to its strikes throughout the country, but he has declined to threaten Israel itself.
On Thursday, Sharaa signed the country’s constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period.
The interim leader said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the start of “a new history for Syria, where we replace oppression with justice,” as he signed the document setting out the transitional period.
Israeli leaders, including Katz, have consistently stated that they do not trust Sharaa.
Jerusalem has been especially tough in its criticism in light of massacres of Alawite civilians that began last Thursday, blamed on the interim government’s security forces, amid clashes with militants loyal to the old regime. Government reinforcements eventually restored order, and calm appeared to hold by late Monday.
