A state-run broadcaster said four civilians including a baby killed while Syrian military said it confronted the attack.

Israeli warplanes have fired missiles targeting Syrian military positions in Homs and the Damascus outskirts in Syria in an attack that killed at least four civilians and wounded another 21, Syrian state media said.

The Syrian military said on Monday that its air defences had confronted the attack, which was launched from Lebanese airspace.

An Israeli military spokeswoman, asked about the report, said: “We don’t comment on such reports.”

Syrian state-run broadcaster al-Ikhbariya said the four civilians including a baby had been killed in Sahnaya, south of Damascus, as “a result of the Zionist aggression”.

State news agency SANA said an additional 21 people had been wounded. SANA also reported that Syrian air defences had brought down a number of the missiles.

In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks in Syria that it says have hit its regional arch-foe, Iran, and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which it calls the biggest threat to its borders.

Iran and Hezbollah are fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war, and Israel says they are trying to turn Syria into a new front against Israelis.