Israel’s military foray into southern Syria continues to grow this evening, as Israeli warplanes have carried out a series of airstrikes across that part of the country, and threatened additional airstrikes in the future, and an open-ended military occupation.
Airstrikes were centered on Syrian military facilities in the Daraa and Rif Dimashq Governorates, and appear to be related to Israel’s recent declaration that Syria will not be allowed to have any military assets inside Syrian territory south of its own capital city of Damascus.
Syria’s ongoing National Dialogue Conference reacted negatively to that Israeli announcement, and also issued a statement calling on Israel to withdraw its occupation forces from the south. Since the regime change in Syria late last year, Israel has invaded southern Syria, taking over parts of the Quneitra and Daraa Governorates and warning civilians to stop all construction inside their villages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated earlier in the day that this occupation would be ongoing, telling the AIPAC conference that Israeli troops will remain within southern Syria for the “foreseeable future,” and that his decision to forbid Syrian military assets south of Damascus remains in place.
Israel began the attacks a few hours after Netanyahu made those comments, and a few hours after the Syrian conference called for Israel to withdraw. Details are still emerging on the casualties resulting from the attacks, with at least two said to have been killed so far.
The IDF issued a statement in the wake of the attacks saying that the very existence of military assets south of Damascus constitutes a threat to Israeli citizens, and that the military will continue to act to “remove” such threats.
Israeli DM Israel Katz offered slightly more substantive comments, declaring the south of Syria a “security zone” and saying that any attempt to establish any military presence within that “zone” by the Syrian military will be met with Israeli fire.
It is not clear if any new assets were brought into southern Syria ahead of these Israeli attacks, or if these are simply more remnants of the former Assad government’s military. Israel has been attacking former military sites, whether north or south of Damascus, for months now.
It is also noteworthy that Israel’s previous comments on the “demilitarized” area of Syria only specifically mentioned the Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda Governorates, and not Rif Damashq, but Rif Damashq was one of the areas attacked this evening. Damascus is actually within Rif Damashq, though some of the governorate is, unsurprisingly, south of it.
Israel’s policy that south Syria is now a “demilitarized zone” raises more than a few questions, particularly the ongoing presence of Israeli occupation forces within. DM Katz insisted Israel will not allow southern Syria to become like southern Lebanon, another region near its border where Israeli troops are actively occupying part of at present.
Israel has been hostile toward Syria for effectively its entire history, and occupied the Golan Heights, internationally recognized as part of Syria, in 1967. Israel was presented as having cheered the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad late last year, and Netanyahu even took credit for it.
Yet the regime change led to an immediate Israeli invasion deeper into Syria, one endorsed by the US as “defensive” in nature. Despite the post-Assad government making peace overtures to Israel even before ousting Assad, Israel has branded it a threat, and is using that as a pretext to continue imposing new restrictions on its existence as a sovereign nation, along with carving out an increasingly large part of its southwest bordering what was already occupied Israeli territory in Golan.
