On Monday evening, Israel carried out a series of attacks against sites near major Syrian cities. The first and largest of those strikes was against Homs, though subsequent strikes targeted areas near Palmyra and Latakia.
Details were scant and there was never an official statement out of Israel about why they carried out such an attack. A report is quoting an Israeli security official as saying the attack on Homs was about targeting a warehouse holding missiles and air defense equipment from Turkey. Turkey has been supplying Syria with a growing amount of military support, to the consternation of Israel which considers it a rival for regional control.
The official is said to have played up the idea of Israel mandating southern Syria being totally demilitarized. It should be noted though that none of these three cities are particularly southerly within Syria. Latakia, one of the targets, is on the country’s far northern coast.
In comments that appear to give credence to this, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir commented at a Navy graduation ceremony that they had struck several areas in Syria that “posed a threat to our freedom of action.”
Though Syria largely has not resisted the ongoing Israeli invasion of the southwest, they have activated their air defense systems for some of Israel’s airstrikes further to the north, or against the capital city of Damascus. They may consider Syria having a level of air defenses that would allow them to even theoretically oppose unprovoked Israeli strikes to amount to a “threat” to the freedom of action they have generally enjoyed in their ability to attack with impunity.
Even there, Israel has claimed Syria activated the defenses during recent strikes but doesn’t “dare” to try to engage the Israeli warplanes that are attacking Syria. It seems this token resistance is itself enough to serve as a pretext for further attacks.
