Israeli strikes carried out last week in Syria killed around a hundred fighters from pro-Iranian armed groups, the heaviest death toll since Israel intensified its raids on Syrian territory, in parallel with its war in Lebanon.
Why this escalation and what reactions did it provoke within the “axis of resistance”, the name given by Iran to a group of groups supported by Tehran and enemies of Israel?
What targets in Syria?
Since September 26, shortly after the start of the open war in Lebanon between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, Israel has continued bombings in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) recorded 86 attacks killing 39 civilians, but also 199 Syrian soldiers or fighters from pro-Iranian groups, including Hezbollah or Iraqi or Palestinian factions.
On November 20, three raids on Palmyra (center) killed 106 fighters, according to the OSDH, based in the United Kingdom and which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
According to the NGO, this is the heaviest death toll in one day in this type of attack since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011.
Among these deaths are 73 fighters from Syrian groups, in addition to 29 non-Syrian fighters, the majority belonging to the Iraqi al-Noujaba movement, and four Lebanese from Hezbollah, according to the OSDH.
On Monday evening, Israel bombed the Joussieh border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, the latest in a series of recent raids on several crossing points.
“Given the high number of raids, Syria is de facto one of the battlefields of Israel’s wars,” OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP.
The targets are border crossings, official or informal, residential apartments, particularly in Damascus, the headquarters of pro-Iranian factions and Hezbollah weapons warehouses, according to him.
Why climbing?
Since the start of the Syrian conflict, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria targeting regime forces and pro-Iranian allies.
Even by occasionally confirming its strikes, Israel has hammered home its refusal to see Syria become Tehran’s bridgehead.
Over the past two months, the Israeli army has assured that its objective was also to prevent Hezbollah from “transferring” weapons used in attacks against Israel from Syria to Lebanon.
On Monday, she clarified that the bombing of Joussieh aimed to “target the Syrian regime’s arms transport routes” at the border.
With the war in Lebanon, the “balance of deterrence” in place between Israel and Hezbollah has “collapsed”, indicates analyst Sam Heller.
Without “fear of reprisals” from Hezbollah, Israel “bombards Lebanon at will, in addition to targets in Syria allegedly linked to Hezbollah and Iran,” he summarizes.
Apparent objective: “sustainably weaken Hezbollah” by targeting its “logistical supply chains via Syria”.
What reactions?
Damascus castigated Israel’s “repeated aggressions”, accusing it of seeking to “expand the scope of its aggression towards the countries of the region”.
Aside from these “traditional condemnations,” Mr. Heller explains, Damascus “does not have many other options: Syria is exhausted by more than a decade” of war and economic collapse.
“Syria’s role is not to confront Israel,” a source close to Hezbollah told AFP, emphasizing its “logistical” importance.
This country “represents the supply line from Iran, through Iraq, to Hezbollah,” he said.
It confirms the fears of Tehran and Baghdad of being in Israel’s sights, even in the event of a truce in Lebanon.
Israeli diplomacy has also recently called for “immediate action” from the UN so that Iraq can stop attacks by “pro-Iranian militias”, recalling Israel’s right “to take all necessary measures to protect “.
Because the Iraqi armed groups forming the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” claim daily drone strikes against Israel, in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon.
The Israeli army announces that it has shot down the overwhelming majority of these projectiles. At the beginning of October, however, a drone killed two Israeli soldiers in the Syrian Golan sector, occupied and annexed by Israel.
After the announcement of Israeli diplomacy, Iraq reacted by accusing Israel of seeking “pretexts” to “justify” a “planned aggression” against Iraqi territory.
However, Baghdad also said it was working to “prevent” the territory “from being used to launch any attack”.
“For more than a year, Iraq has managed to stay relatively away from the regional war,” confirms analyst Renad Mansour, citing the commitment exercised in this direction by both Washington and Tehran: “all two wanted stability in Iraq. »
But “in this period of transition between American presidents Biden and Trump, the Iraqi government fears that Netanyahu will have even more ballast to attack the entire axis of the resistance,” summarizes Mr. Mansour.
