Israel strikes targets in southern Syria after demanding demilitarisation | Syria

Israeli warplanes have carried out a number of airstrikes on army targets exterior Damascus and in southern Syria, as Israeli officers warned the nation’s military to not transfer south of the capital metropolis.

Israeli jets struck army websites late on Tuesday within the city of Kiswah, south of Damascus, in addition to within the southern province of Deraa, native Syrian media reported.

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the strikes in southern Syria and warned that Israel “is not going to permit southern Syria to grow to be southern Lebanon”.

Katz added that “any try by the Syrian regime forces and the nation’s terrorist organisations to ascertain themselves within the safety zone in southern Syria shall be met with hearth”.

On Sunday the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded the whole demilitarisation of southern Syria.

Shortly after a Syrian insurgent 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, regardless of protests by Syria’s new authorities and the UN, which screens the demilitarised zone between the 2 nations.

Israel’s air drive additionally carried out tons of of airstrikes towards weapons depots, naval bases and Syrian army infrastructure within the weeks after the autumn of the Assad regime in an try to stop the weaponry from falling into insurgent arms. Israeli airstrikes in Syria had largely stopped because the new yr.

Hours earlier than the Israeli bombings on Tuesday, Syria condemned Israel’s invasion of the buffer zone and referred to as for it to withdraw its forces from Syrian territory. The assertion was issued on the finish of a nationwide dialogue convention which gathered tons of of Syrian activists and leaders to plan the nation’s post-Assad political transition.

Apart from verbal condemnations, the brand new Syrian authorities has not confronted Israeli forces in Syria. Battered by 14 years of civil conflict and nonetheless constructing the nation’s new military, the Syrian army has little capability for a combat with its closely armed southern neighbour.

Although Syria formally dissolved all army factions on 29 January, the brand new authorities has not but managed to kind a nationwide military. In observe, disparate militias are nonetheless not totally beneath state management, with the defence ministry understanding methods to take up tens of 1000’s of insurgent fighters.

Previous to the autumn of Assad, Israel bombed Syria periodically, although it often didn’t publicly declare duty for the strikes. Most of Israel’s army exercise in Syria was focused on Iranian forces and weapons transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Iranian-backed forces left Syria within the run-up to the autumn of Assad. Nevertheless, Israel additionally views Syria’s new rulers with suspicion, with Israel’s overseas minister, Gideon Sa’ar, on Monday calling the brand new rulers of Syria a “jihadist, Islamist terror group”.