Israel Carries Out Several Airstrikes in Syria and Lebanon

Mint

2 days ago

Israel launched several air attacks in Syria and Lebanon in the past day, increasing tensions with its neighbors.
The Israel Defense Forces struck several tanks advancing toward Suwayda province in southern Syria on Monday. On Tuesday, strikes on military vehicles intensified.
Israel's government said it was acting in defense of the Druze community, a minority group the Jewish state has pledged to protect.
Deadly sectarian clashes broke out in Suwayda on Sunday and Monday between Druze and Bedouin groups, with the Syrian army moving forces into the area to try to quell the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told his military to fire on the tanks because they were 'meant to serve the Syrian regime's activities against the Druze.'
'Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with its own Druze citizens,' Netanyahu said in a statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The movement of Syrian troops into Suwayda, which runs close to Israel's border, also endangered Israel, they said.
The roughly 700,000-strong Druze community in Syria has forged closer ties with Israel — which has about 150,000 Druze — since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government in December. In Syria, they have feared a sectarian backlash from Islamist militants allied with the new administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Syria's been devastated by civil war since 2011 and al-Sharaa is still trying to gain control over large swaths of the country.
Israel positioned some ground forces on Syrian territory soon after al-Assad, an ally of Iran, fell. It's regularly struck Syria this year and remains wary of al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda founder.
Yet in the past month Israel said it was open to a peace deal with Damascus, something that seemed to be given impetus by US President Donald Trump ending sanctions on the Syrian government.
It remains unclear if al-Sharaa's officials will scupper the chances of the two countries forging diplomatic relations for the first time.
Syria condemned Israeli airstrikes carried out Tuesday morning, saying the attacks killed an unidentified number of state troops and civilians.
The war-torn country holds Israel fully responsible for this 'aggression and its consequences,' the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement. It also holds the 'right to defend its land and people by all means' pursuant to international law.
In Lebanon, the IDF carried out 'numerous strikes' against Hezbollah in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Tuesday morning, saying it targeted training compounds used by the Iran-backed militant group's elite Radwan Force for operations against Israel. The IDF said the Radwan was trying to rebuild its capabilities after being severely weakened in a war with Israel between September and November last year.
Israel has regularly struck southern Lebanon and even the eastern Bekaa Valley since a ceasefire in November. Still, these latest attacks appeared bigger than normal.
Since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish state has fought wars against other Iran-backed militias and Iran itself. It's changed its military doctrine to prevent another Oct. 7-style attack, including building troop positions beyond its borders and acting more quickly when it perceives threats.
The violence in Suwayda, where the Druze are concentrated, killed about 100 people in the past few days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said Druze battled with tribal fighters as well as state military and police forces.
A spokesman for Syria's defense ministry said 18 soldiers were killed.
In May, Israel struck a target near the presidential palace in Damascus after the Druze community called for international help following a series of clashes with Syrian forces.
After that strike, Netanyahu said he would not allow any threat to the Druze, an ethnically Arab group whose faith is an offshoot of Islam.
Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group led an Islamist uprising against Assad, has been trying to prevent violence that flared up in Syria a few months after the downfall of his predecessor. He has been seeking to disarm the country's myriad militias or get them to join the national army.
In March, armed men the government said were affiliated with the ousted regime attacked security sites near Syria's Mediterranean coast. That stirred up violence against the Muslim Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs. Three months later, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a church in eastern Damascus, killing 22.
With assistance from Dan Williams, Omar Tamo and Carla Canivete.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.