Israel bombs ‘military targets’ in southern Syria, outside Damascus

Air raids by the Israeli military have been carried out in southern Syria and a portion of Damascus, where it described military installations and command centers.

Israeli warplanes hit the town of Kisweh, approximately 20km (12 miles) south of Damascus, as well as the southern province of Deraa late on Tuesday, residents, security sources and local broadcaster Syria TV said.

Without giving specific locations, the Israeli army claimed to have struck “military targets in southern Syria, including command centers and several sites containing weapons.”

Damascus residents reported hearing several low passes over the capital and a number of explosions as a result.

As part of our new strategy to pacify southern Syria, the Air Force is actively attacking southern Syria, and the message is clear: We won’t allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon, according to a spokesperson for Defense Minister Israel Katz.

The statement added that “any attempt by the Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire.”

According to the closing statement of a summit on national dialogue, Syria demanded that Israel withdraw after it had condemned its incursion into the country’s south. The summit, organised by Syria’s new government, aimed to outline the country’s political roadmap after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israel moved forces into a United Nations-monitored demilitarised zone within Syria after al-Assad’s removal, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the “demilitarisation” of southern Syria, saying Israel “will not allow the new Syrian army to move into territory south of Damascus”.

Palestinian group Hamas condemned the air strikes in the “strongest terms”, calling them “a blatant attack on Syrian sovereignty” and a continuation of Israel’s aggression against Arab nations.

According to Qutaiba Idlbi, a senior resident fellow for Syria at the Atlantic Council, the attacks make efforts by Syria’s new administration to reunify the nation more difficult.

He claimed that the air raids came at a time when the Syrian political transition summit, which had already had difficulties, particularly with talks with the Druze in the south and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast, was taking place.

The powers in northeast and southern Syria will feel more empowered to seek agreements and perhaps military support from outsiders to increase their influence in negotiations with Damascus, Idlbi said. “The strikes are only going to serve to delay such agreement.