DAMASCUS: Syria condemned an Israeli strike southwest of Damascus that wounded one person on Saturday, the second such attack in a week. "This attack constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the integrity of its territory, and a blatant breach of international law, and comes in the context of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Syria said a strike in the country's south on Saturday wounded one person as Israel's army said it targeted a militant, the second such attack in a week. Syrian state television said the man was wounded when an "Israeli occupation drone" targeted a vehicle in the village of Beit Jinn, located southwest of Damascus near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. It published an image of a damaged truck.
Israel's military said that its forces "fired in southern Syria towards a person who advanced attacks in the final stages of preparation", without identifying the target or saying whether they were affiliated with any particular group. "The... activity posed an immediate threat" to Israeli soldiers, the statement added.
Since the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that for decades had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan. It has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory and has vowed to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" in southern Syria, where it seeks a broader demilitarised area.
This week, Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir told troops in southern Syria that "we are monitoring the changes on the Syrian front. We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves on our borders." In Beit Jinn last November, Israeli forces killed 13 Syrians in an operation that they said targeted a militant group. That exchange of fire also left six Israeli soldiers wounded. Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move only recognised by the United States and, this month, also Colombia.
Also this week, Syria and the United States said Israel bombed a disused military air base in northwest Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tacitly acknowledged the strike and said that Türkiye, an ally of the new authorities in Damascus, had been looking to establish a military presence there. Ankara has denied any visit to the site.
Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have traded barbs since the incident, and Ankara announced it was seeking an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu, accusing him of "genocide" linked to the interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Netanyahu's office called Erdogan an "antisemitic dictator" while Erdogan's office called the remarks "outrageous ravings" and accused Netanyahu's government of "seeking to evade accountability".
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday condemned US ambassador Tom Barrack, who is also Washington's point man on Syria, after he criticised an Israeli strike on a Syrian military base near Türkiye. Katz wrote on X that Israel had passed on "intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States" before the strike, and that Barrack's comment was "full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the stance of US President (Donald) Trump himself regarding the Golan Heights".
In his statement, Katz also pushed back against domestic criticism of the bombing in Syria, particularly from some leaders of the opposition. "The attempt by elements in the opposition and parts of the media to paint the operation in Syria in political colours stems from a combination of ignorance, a lack of understanding of Israel's security interests, and a constant desire to bash the government-and it deserves every condemnation," he wrote. — AFP
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