Israeli warplanes targeted central Syria in what state media claimed was an attack that killed civilians, while a war monitor said the Iranian military was hit.

The official news agency SANA said the missiles were fired at the town of Masyaf in the Hama countryside, claiming that several of them were shot down by Syrian air defenses. An unnamed military official was quoted as saying that five people were killed, including a civilian, and seven were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syria war monitor, said Israeli aircraft fired at least eight missiles that struck weapons depots and sites belonging to Iranian militias in the Masyaf area, which led to several fires. Ambulances were seen rushing to the area, it added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attack, which the Observatory said was the 12th Israeli attack on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year. The Observatory has a network of activists on the ground in Syria.

Israel has been targeting Iranian weapons and bases in Syria since 2017, with hundreds of raids in five years. It has vowed not to allow Iran to entrench itself in the war-torn country and transfer weapons to it Lebaese proxy, the Hezbollah.