Tuesday Briefing

The aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria.Credit…Louai Beshara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israeli strike killed Iranian commanders, officials said

At least three generals and four officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East were killed in an Israeli strike in Syria yesterday, according to Iranian and Syrian officials.

The strike in Damascus, the Syrian capital, appeared to be among the deadliest attacks in a yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran that has included the assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists.

Syrian and Iranian officials said that the strike had targeted a diplomatic building, which Israeli officials denied. Iran’s foreign minister later said in a post on X that the “U.S. must answer” for Israel’s actions.

The covert war has moved into the open as tensions have intensified over Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, the Iranian-backed militia that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

More news:

• World Central Kitchen: International aid workers from the disaster relief nonprofit group were killed in an airstrike in Gaza, according to José Andrés, the chef who founded the organization.

• Al-Shifa: Israeli troops pulled out of a major Gaza hospital complex after a two-week raid in which the military said it had killed about 200 Palestinian militants, but which left the hospital “a wasteland,” according to a surgeon there.

• Al Jazeera: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he would use a new law to block the Qatar-based news network in Israel.