Syrian and Iranian official media reported that an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital today, Saturday, destroyed a building used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' paramilitary unit, killing at least five Iranians.

The Syrian army said the building located in the Mezzeh district west of Damascus, which is under tight guard, was completely destroyed, adding that Israeli air forces fired missiles while flying over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli army did not comment.

A few hours later, a group official and the official Lebanese news agency said an Israeli drone strike on a car near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon killed two Hezbollah members who were in the car and two people who were in a nearby orchard. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, said one of the dead was Ali Hadrag, a local Hezbollah commander, without providing further details.

Iranian media, believed to be close to the Iranian intelligence apparatus, confirmed two of the dead in Damascus as General Sadegh Omid Zadeh, deputy of intelligence in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria, and his deputy, who uses the code name Al-Hajj Gholam.

The Guardian later identified the five dead as Hojatollah Omidfar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi, and Mohammad Amin Samadi. They were not given ranks, and the discrepancy in the information could not be immediately verified.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitor, said at least six people, five Iranians and a Syrian, were killed in the missile attack that occurred while officials from Iran-backed groups were holding a meeting. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said three of the Iranians were commanders, adding that four others remain missing under the rubble.

The Telegram channel of the official Iranian television stated that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the Israeli attack on Damascus, adding that "the Islamic Republic will not leave the crimes of the Zionist regime unanswered."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani condemned the Israeli strike in a statement, saying: "Without a doubt, the blood of these high-ranking martyrs will not go to waste."

Iran also again tried to link Israel with ISIS, which its leaders have tried to do since the suicide bombing carried out by extremists in early January in Iran that killed more than 90 people.

Security forces spread around the destroyed four-story building, while ambulances and fire trucks were seen in the area. Rescue operations are underway to find people trapped under the rubble, and windows in adjacent buildings were shattered.

A merchant near the site of the airstrike said he heard five successive explosions around 10:15 a.m., adding that he later saw the bodies of a man and a woman being transported, as well as three injured people.

The man, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told the Associated Press: "The store shook. I stayed inside for a few seconds then went out and saw smoke rising behind the mosque."

Khaled Mawad, who lives nearby, said: "What happened was terrifying, it collapsed."

The airstrike came amid rising tensions in the region while Israel continues its offensive in Gaza. The Israeli attack there, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in modern history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and caused widespread destruction, displacing more than 80% of the 2.3 million residents of the Strip from their homes.

Israel launched the attack after an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. Israel believes nearly 130 hostages are still held by Hamas. The war has raised tensions throughout the region, risking the ignition of other conflicts.

Last month, an Israeli airstrike on a Damascus suburb killed Iranian General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, a senior advisor to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria. Israel has also targeted Palestinian and Lebanese activists in Syria over the past years.

Iranian and Syrian officials have long acknowledged that Iran has military advisors and experts in Syria, but denied having any ground forces. Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed groups have participated in the Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011, helping to tilt the balance of power in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on targets inside government-controlled areas in war-torn Syria in recent years.

Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria but says it targets bases of armed groups allied with Iran, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, which sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Earlier this month, an airstrike reportedly carried out by Israel killed senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.

In recent weeks, rockets have been launched from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, increasing tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border and attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.