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By: Avraham Shusteris – worldisraelnews.com
In an unusual daytime strike, Israel reportedly conducted an air attack on Monday afternoon targeting the Syrian operational headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force.
According to Syrian state media, several Iranian advisors were killed in the attack which was blamed on Israel.
The attack took place in Sayyeda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite town located in southern Damascus.
According to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, seven pro-Iranian military personnel were killed in the attack.
As soon as reports emerged about the alleged attack, Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, denied the reports.
“In today’s attack by the Zionist regime’s fighters on the southern edge of Damascus city, no advisory center of the Islamic Republic of Iran was targeted, nor were any Iranian citizens or advisors martyred.”
He continued, “The blind attacks of the Zionists do not disturb the determination of the resistance axis.”
Monday’s attack happened less than one kilometer away from the location of where senior IRGC official Razi Mousavi and other high ranking IRGC officials were eliminated only a few weeks ago by another apparent Israeli strike.
The town in which the attack took place, Sayyeda Zeinab, is significant because it has become known as the “launching point for Shiitization in Syria” according to a 2014 report in the Syrian Observer.
Iran has been working to spread Shi’ite Islam in Syria to further its influence and power in the Levant.
Sayedda Zeinab serves as the focal point of this effort due to the fact that it holds one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Shiites, the tomb of Zeinab, granddaughter of the prophet Mohammed.
Iran has used this tomb and its surrounding areas as a base for Shiite proselytization.
Significant efforts have been made by Iran to purchase land around Sayyeda Zeinab and encourage and facilitate migration of Iraqi Shiite and other pro-Shiite groups to the area.
In related developments, the Knesset is preparing to vote on whether to expel MK Ofer Cassif for siding against Israel in the genocide hearing at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Ynet reported, according to a story on the WIN web site.
Ofer Cassif is the only Jewish MK representing the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, and recently signed a petition endorsing the accusation made by South Africa that Israel was guilty of committing “genocide” against Gazan civilians in the ongoing war.
On Monday, the Knesset held a hearing on whether to convene a plenum vote that could lead to the expulsion of Ofer Cassif.
WIN also reported that the motion was brought by Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer who felt Cassif’s actions and remarks were “treasonous” and is employing an as-yet unused procedure stipulated in the 2016 Suspension Law that would allow members of the Knesset to expel peers if they were found to support “an armed struggle” against Israel or if they are proven to have incited racism.
MK Ofer Cassif not only signed a petition accusing Israel of genocide, but has posted on X repeating the allegation and has granted interviews with anti-Israel media organizations.
Cassif wrote on X “My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide.”