In the first aerial assault on western Syria in almost a month, Israel launched an offensive on the country on the day after the US ambassador to Damascus declared the conflict between the neighboring nations “solvable” and the Israeli military and Syrian state media reported.
Late on Friday, a report from Syrian state media claimed that an Israeli airstrike on Latakia had resulted in one fatality and three other injuries.
The Israeli military had earlier targeted three locations in the Latakia and Tartous governorates, according to the SANA news agency.
Additionally, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli-made fighter jets have attacked military installations along the Mediterranean coast near Tartous and Latakia.
Syria acknowledged indirect negotiations with Israel earlier this month, which eased tensions, with the Israeli strike.
The Israeli military blasted the strike, saying it “struck weapon storage facilities containing coastal missiles that posed a threat to Israeli maritime freedom of navigation in the Latakia area of Syria.”
Additionally, Latakia was struck by surface-to-air missiles, according to the statement, adding that it would “continue to operate to maintain freedom of action in the region, in order to carry out its missions, and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”
US envoy to Syria Thomas Barracks traveled to Damascus the day after the Israeli strike, where he stated that the conflict between Israel and Syria must begin with a “dialogue” and was intended to reestablish ties under the new administration.
Barrack told reporters on Thursday, “I would say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders.”
Technically speaking, the two nations haven’t fought since 1948’s first Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel and Syria’s conflict intensified in the wake of the 1967 war, which also attracted Egyptian and Jordanian attention, and Israel’s subsequent occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel has frequently attacked Syria both before and after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
Israel seized more Syrian territory close to the border shortly before al-Assad’s regime was overthrown, claiming concern for the interim administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which it has characterized as “jihadist”.
US President Donald Trump and al-Sharaa met earlier in May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and he urged al-Sharaa to restart relations with Israel.
Al-Sharaa has expressed his support for returning to the terms of a 1974 ceasefire agreement, which established a UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights, despite not making any comment on a possibility of normalization with Israel.
Source: Aljazeera
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