Syria condemns Israeli strikes as tensions go up on Turkey

Syria has strongly condemned a new wave of Israeli strikes on bases and other military sites overnight as an “unjustified escalation”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attacks had almost destroyed Hama Airbase and injured dozens of people. A surveillance group reported that four staff from the Ministry of Defense had been killed.

The Israeli army said it had struck “abilities that remained” in the bases of Western Hama and Central T4, as well as military infrastructure in Damascus. He also said the Israeli forces killed armed men during a ground operation in the province of Deraa, where the authorities have killed nine years.

He came in the midst of the reports that Turkey moved to station jets and air defenses in the Syrian air bases.

The Israeli Defense Minister warned the acting president of Syria on Thursday, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, that he “would pay a very heavy prize” if he allowed “forces hostile to Israel” to enter the country.

The Israeli army has carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy military assets – in particular jets, tanks, missiles, air defense systems, arms factories and research centers – since the regime of former president Bashar al -Assad was overthrown by rebel forces in December after 13 years of civil war.

The rebels were led by the Islamist group of Sharaa, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS)-a former affiliate of Al-Qaeda who is still designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom.

Israel has also sent troops to the demilitarized buffer zone not surmounted in the heights of Golan, as well as several adjacent areas and the summit of Mont Hermon.

And he demanded the complete demilitarization of the three neighboring southern provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Suweida, saying that she would not accept the presence of the Sharaa government forces there.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the air strikes on Wednesday evening was targeting five locations across the country in 30 minutes, causing the almost total destruction of Hama’s military airport and injuring dozens of civilians and military staff “.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that there were at least 18 strikes that were targeted planes, railways and Hama Airbase towers.

Israel also struck the T4 air base, which is near Palmyra, and a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in the Damascus Barzeh district, he added.

“This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilize Syria and to exacerbate the suffering of its people,” said the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He called strikes “a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty”, and urged the international community to “exert pressure on Israel to stop its attack”.

Syria may have been the location of these strikes, but the real target was Turkey.

Israel nervously looked at a joint defense pact that the turkey negotiates with the transitional government of Syria, and these last air strikes intervene in the midst of Turkish reports of military equipment transferred to Syrian air bases, including T4.

In a statement Thursday morning, the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned President Sharaa: “If you authorize the forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests – you will pay a very heavy price.”

“The activity of the Air Force of yesterday … is a clear message and a warning in the future – we do not allow to hurt the security of the State of Israel.”

Katz did not explain the forces he considered “hostile”, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar, said separately that Israel was concerned about the “negative role” that Turkey played in Syria.

“They do their best to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It is clear that it is their intention,” he told a press conference in Paris.

The SOHR also reported that Israeli land forces bombed a national park west of the southern city of Deraa on Wednesday evening, killing nine armed men who tried to face them.

Before the bombings, dozens of Israeli military vehicles had entered the Al-Jabaliya dam area near Nawa and took positions there, which prompted the “calls for mosques in the (salary) of the Jihad against the Israeli incurs,” he added.

The government of the province of Deraa warned that the “massacre” of nine people had sparked great public anger. He has not yet identified those who have been killed.

The Israeli army confirmed that its forces had operated in Deraa overnight, “grabbing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure”.

“Several armed men shot our forces in the region. The forces responded with gunshots and eliminated several militants armed from the ground and air,” he added.

The army said that it “would not allow a military threat to exist in Syria”.

However, Turkey’s growing investments in Syria are considered by Israel as another level of threat.

The risk of regional confrontation increases and with it the risk that Syria is again anchored to the conflicts of external powers.