After deadly attacks across central Syria on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens, Israel seems to be continuing to step up the pace of their aggression in the neighboring country, pounding the southern city of Nawa on Thursday, in attacks that have left at least 11 civilians dead so far.
The airstrikes and shelling of the area around Nawa began concurrently with Israeli ground forces moving to take the al-Jabaliya Dam just west of the city. This is reportedly the deepest ground incursion into Syria so far since they invaded in December. There are reports that a lightly armed local militia resisted the ground troops’ advancement, though there has so far been no report that the Israeli troops sustained any casualties.
The casualties, rather seem to have happened not from any clash, but entirely from the airstrikes against Nawa and the shelling of the Tel al-Jumu hilltop near the city. Nawa hospital is reportedly faced with substantial casualties from the attacks, and though an exact number hasn’t been released, some are gravely wounded and the death toll may yet rise further.
Israel did not issue any broad official comments on what they are doing in Nawa or why they attacked it, but the Jerusalem Post is quoting unnamed IDF officials as confirming the incident to them, while presenting it as killing “armed targets” and destroying “terrorist infrastructure.”
Nawa is a city of around 60,000 people in the southern Daraa Governorate. It is a little over 10 miles from the Jordan border, and its relative distance from Israel has meant it rarely factors in to Israeli military operations.
The December invasion and increasing escalations have expanded how far from Israel invading troops are willing to go for undisclosed military goals. It is worth noting that Israel’s invasion of the southwest has centered in part on controlling sources of water in the area, and the proximity of Nawa to the al-Jabaliya Dam seems to be the largest factor in this case.
Tensions between Israel and Syria are soaring in recent days, as the invasion and the daily airstrikes become deadlier. Syria’s Islamist government initially was loathe to address the Israeli incursions at all, and talked of normalizing relations. Syria is now calling the Israeli strikes “unjustified,” though it’s not clear that’s going to amount to actively resisting the incursion or the airstrikes.
Wednesday’s strikes on Syria were about sending a message to Turkey, according to officials. Since then, they’ve accused Turkey of trying to turn Syria into a protectorate, and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Syria would “pay a heavy price” for allowing forces hostile to Israel in their territory.
Though Katz didn’t explicitly name this hostile force in his comments, it would be unlikely it was referring to anyone but Turkey, as it came in the context of attacking sites across Syria to threaten Turkey, including an attack of an air base in Tadmur that Turkey was reportedly planning to take over just a day before.
