As Israel strikes Iran-linked figures in Damascus, civilians pay the price

DAMASCUS — In the hours after Israeli missiles hit a residential building in the Mezzeh area of Syria’s capital on Tuesday evening, friends of Rahaf Kamhia, a young Syrian doctor, began to mourn her on social media. Kamhia was one of “seven civilians, including women and children” killed in the bombing, which injured 11 others, the state-owned Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Israeli officials said the strike targeted a senior member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in Beirut on September 28. Some Syrian media reported that Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force was the target. 

Kamhia, originally from Homs province, was a resident doctor in nephrology at al-Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus. She passed the national medical examination a little over a year ago, as she posted on her personal Facebook page at the time. 

Doctor Rahaf Kamhia, who was killed in an Israel’s October 8 strike in Mezzeh, poses in a picture she posted on Facebook after passing her national medical exam last year, 4/5/2023 (Facebook)

Mezzeh, an upscale district on the southwestern outskirts of Damascus, has long been a sought-after neighborhood for Syrians and foreigners alike. Viewed as a safe area of the capital, it enjoys better services due to the presence of foreign embassies and missions and United Nations (UN) organizations, alongside multiple Syrian security and military headquarters. But as Israel hunts down members of Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated figures, their presence in the neighborhood has made it a repeated target. 

“Everything changed since the IRGC and Hezbollah settled in Mezzeh, at the expense of our safety and security,” Marwan Nouri (a pseudonym) told Syria Direct. The 68-year-old’s home in the Mezzeh Villas neighborhood was partially damaged on October 2 by an Israeli strike on a nearby residential building that killed Hassan Jaafar Qasir, Hassan Nasrallah’s son-in-law. 

The same strike killed Dana al-Ghazi, a young Syrian woman. The day before, state television presenter Safaa Ahmad was killed in a raid targeting Qasir’s brother, Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, a senior leader in Hezbollah. 

“The windows of the house shattered,” Manal Nouri, Marwan’s 35-year-old daughter, who works at a beauty center in the capital and lives with her family in Mezzeh, told Syria Direct. She estimated the cost of repairing the damage at SYP 2.5 million ($170 at the current black market exchange rate of SYP 14,650 to the dollar). 

Speaking over WhatsApp from her aunt’s house in the al-Shaalan neighborhood of Damascus, where the family has been staying since their home was damaged, Manal recalled the moment of the October 2 strike. The blast was “strong, and close to our house,” she said. “The ground under our feet shook like in an earthquake.” 

Following the explosion, the color drained from her father’s face, and Manal rushed to bring him to the nearby al-Mouwasat Hospital before he lost consciousness, as he did when a similar Israeli strike hit a residential building housing IRGC members 300 meters from their home on January 20. 

“I felt nauseous, my heart was racing,” her father said. “I passed out, and don’t know what happened after that.” Since the January attack, he has been in a constant state of “tension and anxiety” as Israel continues to bomb Iranian targets and members of affiliated groups in Damascus.

Dangerous neighbors

In the years leading up to the current escalation, Israeli bombings largely focused on military sites belonging to Iran, Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias. But civilian areas were not exempt, with Mezzeh repeatedly targeted, including in the bombing of the Iranian consulate at the beginning of April. 

Israel claims its strikes are precise, but many of its raids have claimed the lives of civilians like Kamhia and al-Ghazi. The presence of Iranian and Hezbollah figures in residential neighborhoods in itself puts civilians in danger, locals said. 

In and around Damascus, this presence is most concentrated in the Mezzeh, Sayyeda Zainab, Kafr Souseh, Qura al-Assad, Saboura, Kiswa and al-Shaghour areas, civilian sources told Syria Direct. Cities and towns south of Damascus, as well as the area around the Damascus International Airport, also house personnel, alongside coordination centers and possible military sites. 

This penetration of civilian areas, alongside escalating Israeli operations targeting figures within the Iran-led “axis of resistance,” increases residents’ fears that they, too, could be targeted. Manal Nouri and her father worry because their home in Mezzeh is “close to the apartments of Iranian commanders and personnel,” she said. 

Before the recent bombings in his neighborhood, Marwan, a retired teacher who spent his life teaching philosophy at a public school, had made peace with “the idea of death and nonexistence,” he said. Then, the “nearby bombing sparked a series of pathological thoughts of death.” 

“I always felt safe here, but with the bombing, my perception of living in a safe area changed,” leaving him trembling whenever he hears a strange sound close by, he said. “The bombing that shattered my house’s windows caused a deep wound in my spatial memory.” 

Once the safest area in Damascus, the Nouri family’s neighborhood has become one of its most dangerous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) wrote on Wednesday. SOHR has documented the killing of 14 civilians in the neighborhood so far in October, due to Israel’s targeting of residential buildings.

“Iran and its militias have bought dozens of residential apartments among Syrians’ apartments,” the organization wrote, noting that residents fear increased Israeli attacks on buildings housing displaced Lebanese citizens who arrived in recent weeks. 

At least 15 Iranian-backed groups are currently active in Syria, according to a 2023 analysis by the Turkey-based Jusoor Center for Studies. The most prominent of these are: the Fatemiyoun Division, the Zainabiyoun Division, Iraqi Hezbollah, Lebanese Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade, Failaq al-Waad al-Sadiq and Saraya al-Khorasani. 

“It is as if Syria is occupied, and has no forces to protect it from any aggression,” Marwan Nouri sighed. “Iran has no regard for Syria’s sovereignty. It makes use of our land and puts it in danger.” 

“The problem is bigger than a strike here and a response there. Iran has subjugated Damascus,” pulling it into “an open-ended battle, the results of which could be catastrophic,” he added. He described the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran as a war to “divide the cake and plunder resources.”

The sound of Farsi

Bayan Malek (a pseudonym), has spent the past 20 years in the town of Sayyeda Zainab—or Sitt Zainab, as Syrians refer to it—around 10 kilometers south of Damascus. 

The town is home to the shrine of Sayyeda Zainab, the eldest daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib. As one of the most important Shiite shrines in Syria, it has been a major pilgrimage site since long before the 2011 revolution. Pilgrims include many Iranians, and it is not uncommon to hear Farsi spoken in its streets.

For months, the mere sound of this familiar language has sparked “alarm” and a “state of alert” in 39-year-old Malek when she hears it spoken close by. She is afraid of Israeli bombings pursuing Iran-affiliated groups, she told Syria Direct. 

Four years ago, members of an Iranian military group moved into the building next to Malek’s home. With every Israeli strike on her town or elsewhere in Syria, the mother of three feels danger closing in, and wonders “how to protect my family.”

Malek declined to provide any information about the armed group or its affiliation “out of fear for my safety, and that of my family and neighbors,” she said. 

Like other Damascus residents Syria Direct spoke to, Malek said she has no ill will towards Iranian civilians living in or visiting her town. The problem is with military personnel maintaining a presence in residential buildings. Residents have repeatedly complained to the relevant authorities to no avail, she said. 

“Aren’t all the crises we are going through—the poverty and destruction—enough, without adding the war between Israel and Iran in our own homes,” Malek said. “We don’t know if we will face a similar fate to the civilians who have been killed by the game of cat and mouse” between Tel Aviv and Tehran, she added. 

She blamed realtors and property brokers for the spread of Iranian-affiliated military personnel in civilian neighborhoods. “They only care about making more money from Iranian groups and their allies,” she said. 

“The wave of buying Syrian properties is not new, dating back to 2013, but has noticeably increased since 2016,” she added. Media reports that year pointed to Tehran encouraging companies, businesspeople and citizens to buy up houses, real estate and hotels in upscale neighborhoods of Damascus. 

A social media post satirizes the deadly threat posed by Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-backed forces in civilian areas, 23/2/2024 (Facebook)

Some Syrians have found dark humor in the presence of Iran-affiliated military personnel in civilian neighborhoods. One satirical social media post in February took the form of an imagined conversation between two people. The first says: “How are you, neighbor? Are you new here?” The second responds, in Farsi: “Khosh amadid [welcome].” Below the text, a picture from a Syrian television series implies that death immediately follows.

With no sign of an end to Israel’s airstrikes in Damascus, Marwan Nouri and his daughter can do little, for now, but follow the news of bombings in Mezzeh, each one carrying their hope of returning home a little further away. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.