After occupying part of the Golan Heights, the Israeli army shelled the infrastructure of the Syrian army.
More than 300 raids were carried out between Monday and Tuesday.
Objective: to reduce to nothing the threat that Syria could pose in the future, now in the hands of radical Islamists.
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Syria: the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime
Israel is taking advantage of the power vacuum in Syria. A few hours after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the IDF sent its tanks to take control of the buffer zone between the two countries, located on the Golan Heights. This ground operation was accompanied, during the night from Monday to Tuesday, by unprecedented strikes. More than 300 air raids were carried out to destroy Syrian military infrastructure.
Airports, radars, weapons depots, air defense unit near the port of Latakia (northwest), even navy ships: the Israeli army has spared no Syrian site. Particularly those harboring chemical weapons, the main fear of the Jewish state. A scientific research center in Damascus, under the Ministry of Defense, was completely destroyed. It was, according to the United States, linked to the Syrian chemical weapons program, and had already been targeted in April 2018 by concerted American, French and British strikes.
Destroy “remaining weapons”
Like the dazzling offensive by the Syrian rebels, Israeli operations are being scrutinized in the region, already plagued by conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese television channel Al-Mayadeen, quoted Monday evening by the Israeli daily Ha’Aretz, even mentioned the presence of Israeli tanks in southern Syria, around twenty kilometers from the suburbs of Damascus. The IDF nevertheless denied on Tuesday an advance by its troops towards Damascus. Israel’s desire to clear the way for total control of Syria by the rebels is very real.
According to the OSDH, Israel intends to destroy “the remaining weapons“of the old power, ally of Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah as well as Russia. A posture assumed by the Hebrew State:”It is important to emphasize, however, that Israel is not intervening in the ongoing conflict between Syrian armed groups; our actions are solely focused on maintaining our safety“, explained Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon to the UN Security Council.
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“I emphasize this: this is a limited and temporary measure that we have taken for security reasons“, assured Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday. If the latter insists on the character “temporary” of the operations is that criticism has been pouring out in recent hours over their scale. The ground forces have in fact taken control of observation points of the Syrian army in the region of Mount Hermon, beyond the demilitarized zone under the control of the UN However, the latter has been a diplomatic headache for decades.
Israel in fact conquered part of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. The demilitarized buffer zone under UN control was created following an agreement to disengage Israeli forces. and Syrians in 1974 after the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. Israel annexed the part of the Golan under its control in 1981.
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Asked whether the advance on the flanks of Hermon had taken place in the part inside the buffer zone, Gideon Saar acknowledged that the IDF was not necessarily on target: “There may be a place whose definition differs legallyl”, but “All locations (where Israeli soldiers were deployed) were taken keeping in mind the maintenance of our security in order to avoid any surprises from the east.”
