Military sites on Syrian coast hit by Israel

Intense Israeli strikes targeted military sites in the coastal region of Tartus in Syria overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). The region is home to a Russian naval base.

“Israeli combat planes launched strikes” on several sites, including air defense units and “surface-to-surface missile depots,” according to the NGO, which describes it as “the heaviest strikes since 2012” in this coastal region of Tartus.

In a week after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israel carried out hundreds of air raids on its neighbor. Israeli troops entered the buffer zone with Syria, controlled by the UN and located on the edge of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan to double the population in the part of the Syrian Golan annexed by Israel, but said it had no interest in entering into conflict with Syria.