An Israeli strike on a residential building in the Sayeda Zainab district south of the Syrian capital Damascus killed seven civilians on Sunday, the Syrian defence ministry said, in the second such attack in less than a week.

The fatalities included women and children, with 20 people also injured, the ministry said in a statement.

"The Israeli attack targeted (Hezbollah) figures in the building," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

It said that two locations "where Hezbollah members live" near the Sayyida Zeinab municipality were hit.

Some reports revealed that the target of the airstrike was Ali Moussa Daqduq, Hezbollah's official in charge of the Golan Heights file. 

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which said last week that its air force had struck intelligence assets of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in the same area.

Sayeda Zainab, a stronghold of armed group Hezbollah and the site of a major Shi'ite shrine, has been the target in previous strikes.

Israel has ramped up strikes in Syria since the Oct. 7 attack by militant group Hamas on Israel in 2023 and particularly since the escalation of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.