Israel launches 480 attacks on Syria and seizes territory as Netanyahu promises to change the face of Middle East
The fall of Assad’s regime triggered a harsh military response from Israel, which launched airstrikes against military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops inside and outside the demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had carried out some 480 strikes across the country in the past two days, hitting much of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpile, while Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli navy had destroyed a Syrian fleet overnight and The operation was hailed as “a huge success.”
Just a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime as “a dramatic new chapter.”
“The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of our severe strikes against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” he told a rare news conference on Monday. “The axis has not disappeared, but as I promised – We are changing the face of the Middle East.”
Israeli officials welcomed the fall of Assad, a staunch ally of Iran who allowed his country to be used as a supply route for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. But they are also concerned about possible actions by the radical Islamists who rule Syria, which borders Israel in the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel is bombing Syrian military facilities storing chemical weapons and long-range missiles to prevent them “falling into the hands of extremists,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told reporters on Monday.
“I’m not a prophet of what’s going to happen in the future,” he said. “What is important now is to take all necessary steps in the context of Israel’s security.”
On December 10, smoke billowed after an Israeli airstrike on Damascus.
The CNN team in Damascus heard loud explosions in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a continuation of a strike that began over the weekend. The Syrian militant group “Voice of the Capital” said the nighttime bombing attack was “the most violent in Damascus in 15 years.”
Of the 480 attacks carried out by the Israeli Air Force, approximately 350 were by manned aircraft, targeting airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra. aircraft, fighter jets, tanks and weapons production bases. The remaining attacks were in support of ground operations against weapons depots, military structures, launchers and firing positions.
The Israel Defense Forces also said its ships attacked two naval facilities in Syria where 15 ships were docked. Dozens of sea-to-sea missiles are said to have been destroyed.
Footage taken by an AFP photographer showed massive damage to warships at the Syrian military port in Latakia, and a Syrian military helicopter was also destroyed at the Meze air base southwest of Damascus.
The aftermath of a suspected Israeli attack on December 8 near Mezeh Air Base outside Damascus.
Meanwhile, some Arab countries accuse Israel of taking advantage of instability in Syria to grab land.
The Arab League said Israel was “taking advantage of developments within Syria,” while Egypt said its move “constitutes the exploitation of liquidity and vacuum… to seize more Syrian territory.”
“Beyond the Buffer”
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani denied that troops were advancing “toward” Damascus but acknowledged that they were operating in Syria outside the buffer zone. The Israeli military insists it “will not interfere in Syria’s internal affairs.”
Katz said in a statement on Monday that Israel was establishing a “safe zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructure” “outside the buffer zone” in southern Syria.
“Voice of the Capital” said on Tuesday that Israeli troops had advanced to Bekassen, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the Syrian capital and several kilometers from the Syrian side of the buffer zone. CNN could not independently confirm the claim, but the village is located in the foothills of Syria’s Mount Hermon, which Israeli forces captured on Sunday. Mount Hermon is a strategic height located on the border between Syria, Lebanon and the Golan Heights.
Israeli ground troops entered Syrian territory after Netanyahu on Sunday ordered the military to occupy the demilitarized “zone of separation” between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. The zone was established in 1974 when Israeli forces occupied the Golan Heights in a 1967 attack on Syria.
Israeli officials declined to give details on how far Israeli troops would advance or how long they would stay there. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Dennon, told the Security Council in a letter on Monday that Israel had “temporary deployments in several locations.” He said these were “limited temporary measures designed to counter any further threats to its citizens.”
Eyad Kourdi and Dana Karni contributed to this report.
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