Military tensions between Israel and Syria continue to grow precipitously, with a new flurry of Israeli drone strikes against the Kiswah, a suburb of the capital city of Damascus. The strikes killed at least eight Syrian soldiers and wounded others.
The attack, according to Syrian state media, targeted buildings belonging to the Syrian Army, and killed members of the 44th Division. The IDF has not commented about why they attacked Syria, which will doubtless further complicate ongoing security talks between the two nations.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned today’s strikes as a “grave violation of international law” and a threat to Syrian sovereignty. It is just the latest violation in the area, as Israel also invaded the village of Beit Jinn just down the road earlier this week, capturing a number of Syrian civilians.
Though they never really offered a pretext for why they invaded Beit Jinn, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a statement thereafter declaring Israel intends to remain in the occupied territory within that area to defend the settlements inside the occupied Golan Heights.
The current Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led government of Syria took power in December, and Israel invaded southwestern Syria almost immediately thereafter, seizing an ever-increasing amount of territory. Israel has at least nine military posts they’ve established in Syrian territory since then, and have imposed a full ban on the Syrian military being in any of the governorates south of Damascus.
The ongoing security talks between the two are meant to lead not to a peace deal, but simply to reduced tensions. Even that seems a tall order at this point, as Israeli attacks and incursions are getting ever-more flagrant, and needling the Syrian government.
