by Admin
Dec 8, 2024
Less than 24 hours after the fall of the Assad government, Israel has announced that it has begun carrying airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons and missile sites across Syria in a move to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Syrian rebels who ousted President Assad.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar confirmed this on Monday during a press conference in Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel. Saar said that the Israeli government is working on preventing humanitarian crises in Syria and a bigger escalation of violence by destroying chemical weapons depots and missile bases across the country.
The Israeli air force began striking different targets in Syria the past two days after the Syrian rebels took control of Homs, and a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli military had temporarily seized control of the Area of Separation, claiming that the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had “collapsed” with the rebel takeover of the country.
The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau located about 60 km southwest of Damascus the Syrian capital.
Israel took over the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967 and declared it annexed in 1981. The move was not recognized internationally. However, the United States government recognized the annexation in 2019.
The Israeli foreign minister further disclosed that the Israeli government has no intention of interfering with the issues going on in Syria but rather to safeguard the interests of their own country.
Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister also issued a statement stating that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will continue to destroy heavy weapons depots in Syria to prevent them from falling into the hands of the rebel forces.
The IDF has been conducting a series of airstrikes in Syria since the beginning of their special military operation in Gaza which began in October last year after the Hamas October 7 attacks.
The IDF has confirmed that they carried hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah positions in southern Syria over the past year.
However, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the fall of the Assad government is a historic event in the history of the Middle East. He said that Israel has extended a friendship hand to any Syrian who wants to be friends with Israel.
He further explained that, “If we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that’s our desire. But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel.”
Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed that the actions of the IDF in Syria are not permanent but a temporary defensive measure against the Syrian rebel forces from exercising their territorial control over Golan Heights which the HTS rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani family has roots there.
The Golan Heights is currently under Israeli occupation and roughly over 20,000 Israelis are currently living in Golan Heights.