Fresh Israeli strike on residential area in Damascus kills at least 7 Syrians

An upmarket Damascus neighbourhood was rocked by a rare explosion late Tuesday night, with an apartment block left largely in ruins and children among the dead following an unprecedented Israeli attack on the Syrian capital.

At least eight civilians, including three women and four children, were killed after three rockets fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights slammed into a residential and commercial complex in Mezzeh - a district largely spared the violence of the civil war - reducing three floors of the building to rubble.

Among the dead were a Yemeni university professor, Dr. Shawki Al-Oud, his Syrian wife and three children, a female physician, Dr. Rafah Qamhiyah, and a mother and child, named as Rana Abdul Razzaq Touma and Qusay Khushman. The deaths of so many children in the massacre led to revulsion across the country and a rare show of unity across Syria's political divide.