Israel bombs Syria amid Netanyahu call to ‘demilitarise’ south

The Israeli army said it carried out air strikes across southern Syria on Tuesday evening, as it continues its unprecedented aggression against Damascus amid its alleged attempts to illegally “demilitarise” the south. 

At least two people were killed in a strike on Tuesday as Israel says it is targeting military sites in southern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two military sites south of the Syrian capital were targeted

“Israeli aircraft carried out four strikes on a military unit’s headquarters southwest of Damascus. Simultaneously, another Israeli strike hit a military position in Daraa province,” SOHR reported. 

The strike in Daraa province hit Tell al-Hara, a strategic hilltop overlooking large areas of the Golan and northern Israel, according to the London-based observatory. 

The air assault came just hours after the Syrian government condemned Israel’s incursion into the country’s south and demanded the withdrawal of its forces, according to the closing statement of a national dialogue summit.

The strikes also come after comments made on Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday that southern Syria must be “completely demilitarised”, warning that Israel would not allow the new Syrian army or the now formally disbanded Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to operate near its border. 

Netanyahu’s comments were followed by a call on Monday by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar for “federalism” in Syria during a speech to the EU-Israel forum, with fears that Israel is seeking to split the country along ethnic and sectarian lines.

The hard-right Israeli diplomat also attacked the new Syrian government, headed by former Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, as an “Islamic jihad terrorist group”. 

The comments by Israeli officials, in turn, led to large protests across the south of Syria on Monday and Tuesday. 

Demonstrators in Quneitra, Daraa, and  Suweida raised banners calling for “Syrian unity” and “rejecting division,” while chanting slogans against the Israeli occupation.

In Daraa, known as the cradle of Syria’s revolution, thousands of protesters marched through the city, with chants including “Netanyahu you pig, Syria won’t be divided, Syria is free, Israel out, Daraa will remain with Syria until death.”

There has also been backlash among Syria’s allies, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan denouncing Israel’s pursuit of an “expansionist” policy through its aggression against Syria, calling the occupation of Syria’s south a “violation against regional sovereignty”. 

Ever since the Syrian revolutionary forces overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Israel has waged brutal aggression against the country, including unprecedented airstrikes and expansion of the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights into the buffer zone in the south.