
Israel strikes targets in southern Syria after demanding demilitarisation
Israeli warplanes have carried out several airstrikes on military targets outside Damascus and in southern Syria, as Israeli officials warned the country's army not to move south of the capital city.
Israeli jets struck military sites late on Tuesday in the town of Kiswah, south of Damascus, as well as in the southern province of Deraa, local Syrian media reported.
The Israeli defence minister, Israeli Katz, confirmed the strikes in southern Syria and warned that Israel 'will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon'.
Katz added that 'any attempt by the Syrian regime forces and the country's terrorist organisations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire'.
Two days earlier on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded the complete demilitarisation of southern Syria.
Shortly after a Syrian rebel offensive led by Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the Assad regime on 8 December, Israeli forces entered the UN buffer zone between Israel and Syria. Israeli forces have remained there ever since, despite protests by Syria's new government and the UN, which monitors the demilitarised zone between the two countries.
Israel's air force also carried out hundreds of airstrikes against weapons depots, naval bases and Syrian military infrastructure in the weeks after the fall of the Assad regime in an attempt to prevent the weaponry from falling into rebel hands. Israeli airstrikes in Syria had mostly stopped since the new year.
Hours before the Israeli bombings on Tuesday, Syria condemned Israel's invasion of the buffer zone and called for it to withdraw its forces from Syrian territory. The statement was issued at the end of a national dialogue conference which gathered hundreds of Syrian activists and leaders to plan the country's post-Assad political transition.
Besides verbal condemnations, the new Syrian government has not confronted Israeli forces in Syria. Battered by 14 years of civil war and still building the country's new army, the Syrian military has little capacity for a fight with its heavily armed southern neighbour.
Though Syria officially dissolved all military factions on 29 January, the new government has not yet managed to form a new national army. In practice, disparate militias still are not entirely under state control, with the defence ministry still working out how to absorb tens of thousands of rebel fighters.
Prior to the fall of Assad, Israeli bombed Syria periodically, though it usually did not publicly claim responsibility for the strikes. Most of Israel's military activity in Syria was concentrated on Iranian forces and weapons transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah and Iranian-backed forces left Syria in the run-up to the fall of Assad. However, Israel also views Syria's new rulers with suspicion, with Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, on Monday calling the new rulers of Syria a 'jihadist, Islamist terror group'.
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Reuters
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Gaza-bound aid boat with Greta Thunberg on board arrives in Israel after seizure
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Israel sealed off Gaza from all aid in the early days of the war ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023 but later relented under US pressure. In early March, shortly before Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas, the country again blocked all imports, including food, fuel and medicine. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas still holds 55 hostages, more than half believed to be dead. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said that women and children make up most of the dead. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the population, leaving people almost completely dependent on international aid. Efforts to broker another truce have been deadlocked for months. Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the captives are returned and Hamas is defeated, or disarmed and exiled.