MARRIAGE CAT / AFP
The Israeli army has carried out hundreds of air raids in Syria and launched an incursion into the Golan, on the edge of the territory it has occupied since 1967. Photo of an Israeli military exercise in the Golan in 2023.
SYRIA – No less than 250 air raids. While the country's new strongman, Ahmed al-Chareh, at the head of the Islamist rebel groups who liberated the country, negotiates the transition of power in Damascus with the last members of Bashar al-Assad's Ba'ath party, Israel has led numerous bombings in Syria. The Hebrew State “destroyed the main military sites in Syria”, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said this Tuesday, December 10.
According to this organization, which relies on a vast network of sources across Syria, Israel has, among other things, bombed airports, radars, arms and ammunition depots and military research centers in several regions, including damask. While attacking an air defense unit near the major port of Latakia, in the northwest of the country, Syrian navy ships were also damaged by the Israeli army.
AFP journalists heard loud explosions at dawn on Tuesday, and live AFPTV footage showed thick columns of smoke above the city center. On the night of Monday to Tuesday, Syrian civil defense said it had extinguished the fire that broke out in a research center near Damascus after a bombing, saying it had not observed any “unusual toxic smoke” and no cases of suffocation, contrary to rumors which spread on social networks.
These raids aim “the destruction of remaining weapons in warehouses and military units that were controlled by the forces of the former regime”ally of Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, said the OSDH in a press release.
Prevent rebels from accessing weapons
The Israeli army had no immediate comment. Monday, December 9, Israel still confirmed having destroyed over the last few days “chemical weapons” in Syria to prevent them from falling into the hands of the rebels.
According to the head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar, the rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which participated in the fall of the regime, are led by “an extreme ideology of radical Islam”. “This is why we attacked strategic weapons systems such as remnants of chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets, so that they do not fall into the hands of extremists”justified the minister.
New incursion into the Syrian Golan
Israeli troops also advanced into the Syrian Golan buffer zone, a UN-controlled territory separating Syria from Israel and supposed to be demilitarized under a 1974 agreement. An action that constitutes “ a violation » of the 1974 disengagement agreement, the UN spokesperson said on Monday.
This Israeli incursion provoked strong reactions from other regional powers. This military action confirms Israel's continued violation of the rules of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria's chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.said the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release on Tuesday.
“This aggression is a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations”for his part castigated the spokesperson for Iranian diplomacy, Esmaïl Baghaï, in a press release published Monday evening. Lebanese Hezbollah also criticized Israel “ to occupy more territory in the Golan Heights” and “ strike and destroy the defensive capabilities of the Syrian state”. “We support Syria and its people, and emphasize the need to preserve the unity of this country,” concluded the Lebanese militia.
Israel already conquered part of this mountainous plateau from Syria in 1967. “Today, everyone understands the capital importance of our presence on the Golan, and not at the foot of the Golan”Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday. “The Golan will be part of the State of Israel for eternity”he insisted.
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