TEHRAN – The Israeli regime has targeted new areas on Syrian soil, marking its latest attempt to spread its war in Gaza as it struggles to inch closer to defeating Hamas in the besieged territory. 

Local media on Monday reported Israeli airstrikes on a number of sites south of the capital Damascus. Syria’s Defense Ministry said several civilians were killed or injured. The projectiles were fired from the occupied Golan Heights. 

Some reports initially suggested that Iranian military advisors were among the victims who lost their lives during the Israeli attacks. Iran’s ambassador to Syria, however, rejected the claims. 

"In today's airstrikes by the Zionist regime's warplanes on the southern outskirts of Damascus, no advisory center of the Islamic Republic of Iran was targeted, nor were any Iranian citizens or advisors martyred. The blind attacks of the Zionists will not disturb the determination of the Axis of Resistance,” Ambassador Hossein Akbari said. 

Following Israel’s lackluster ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, the regime has been trying to save face by assassinating resistance members outside the Palestinian territories. It targeted the home of a senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps advisor near the Syrian capital in December. The regime also assassinated five IRGC advisors in Damascus earlier this month.