18:11 BST
Rachel Hagan
World Service reporter
OS Radio on the BBC’s World Service has been speaking with people in Damascus throughout the day, here’s what some of them had to say:
Filmmaker Fadi tells us that he was near the ministry of defence building in Damascus when Israeli missiles hit.
“Everyone started running in the street,” he says. “No one knew where to go, and suddenly the airstrike began, targeting some of the most crowded areas.
He then describes seeing rescue workers “rushing to help the injured, carrying them away from the site of the attack”, and adds that many are now “deeply worried” about what will happen next.
A doctor in Damascus, Sham, says it has been “super overwhelming” at her hospital.
As violence in Syria escalated before today’s attacks, she says her teams “evacuated the hospital” to make sure emergency care and operation rooms “are ready now”.
And, aid worker Muhammed says he could hear the sound of the Israeli aircraft from where he is based near the city’s Umayyad Square.
When he heard the strikes taking place, he says he was “reminded of the feeling in north-west Syria when Iranian and Russian and Assad air forces were bombing us and our innocent civilians”.
Image caption,
Muhammed was in central Damascus when the Israeli strikes took place