Israel Says It Launched 480 Strikes in Syria Since Fall of Assad

[oil&gas]

Dave DeCamp
December 10, 2024

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it launched 480 strikes in Syria over 48 hours following the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Israeli media said marked the heaviest Israeli bombing of Syria in history.

The IDF said it struck “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria” and estimated it destroyed between 70% to 80% of the former government’s weapons. Israeli strikes hit targets across Syria, including the port of Latakia, which destroyed naval vessels.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli bombing campaign “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria, including Syrian airports and their warehouses, aircraft squadrons, radars, military signal stations, and many weapons and ammunition depots in various locations in most Syrian governorates.”

Israel has also seized territory inside Syria, a buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria, and several areas beyond the zone. Sources told Reuters Israeli forces advanced 10 kilometers into Syrian territory and were only 25 kilometers away from Damascus.

Israeli sources denied that Israeli troops advanced that far into Syria but also announced they were creating a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria, framing the occupation as temporary. The US has backed Israel’s land grab in Syria, also claiming it was a defensive move.

“Together with the prime minister, I have instructed the [military] to establish a sterile defense zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed Israel doesn’t seek to interfere in Syria’s “internal affairs” despite the massive bombing campaign and land grab. He also threatened that Israel would take more action if the new government aligned with Iran.

“If the new regime in Syria allows Iran to re-establish itself, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah – we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli leader previously took credit for the overthrow of Assad by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, and celebrated the regime change. “The Assad regime is a central link in Iran’s axis of evil — this regime has fallen,” he said on Sunday.

Israel Says It Launched 480 Strikes in Syria Since Fall of Assad - News From Antiwar.com

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it launched 480 strikes in Syria over 48 hours following the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Israeli media said marked the heaviest Israeli bombing of Syria in history. The IDF said it struck "most of the strategic weapons...

news.antiwar.com

 

[oil&gas]

Israel strikes Syria 480 times and seizes territory as Netanyahu pledges to change face of the Middle East
December 10, 2024

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out about 480 strikes across the country over the past two days, hitting most of Syria’s strategic weapon stockpiles, while Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli navy had destroyed the Syrian fleet overnight, hailing the operation as “a great success.”

Just a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hailed the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime as “a new and dramatic chapter.”

“The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” he said during a rare press conference Monday. “The axis has not yet disappeared but as I promised – we are changing the face of the Middle East.”

Israeli officials have reveled in the downfall of Assad, a staunch ally of Iran who allowed his country to be used as a resupply route for Hezbollah in Lebanon. But they also fear what could come from radical Islamists governing Syria, which borders Israel in the occupied Golan Heights.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told journalists on Monday that Israel was bombing Syrian military facilities housing chemical weapons stocks and long-range missiles to prevent them from falling “into the hands of extremists.”

“With regard to what will be in the future, I’m not a prophet,” he said. “It is important right now to take all necessary steps in the context of the security of Israel.”

A CNN team in Damascus heard loud explosions throughout the early hours on Tuesday, a continuation of strikes that began over the weekend. Voice of the Capital, a Syrian activist group, said the overnight bombing campaign was “the most violent in Damascus in 15 years.”

Of the 480 strikes carried out by the Israeli Air Force, about 350 were manned aircraft strikes targeting airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, missiles, drones, fighter jets, tanks and weapon production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The rest of the strikes were in support of ground operations that targeted weapons depots, military structures, launchers and firing positions.

The IDF also said its ships struck two Syrian naval facilities, where 15 vessels were docked. Dozens of sea-to-sea missiles were said to have been destroyed.

Images captured by AFP photographers showed large scale destruction of military vessels at the Syrian naval port in Latakia and destroyed Syrian military helicopters at the Mezzeh Air Base southwest of Damascus.

Meanwhile, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab.

The Arab League, a grouping of Arab nations, said Israel was “taking advantage of the developments in the internal situation in Syria,” and Egypt said its moves “constitute an exploitation of the state of fluidity and vacuum… to occupy more Syrian territories.”

‘Beyond the buffer zone’
Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, denied that forces were “advancing toward” Damascus, but acknowledged they were operating in Syria beyond the buffer zone. The Israeli military has insisted that it “is not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”

Katz said in a statement on Monday that Israel was creating a “security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructures” in southern Syria, “beyond the buffer zone.”

Voice of the Capital said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had advanced as far as Beqaasem, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the Syrian capital and several kilometers beyond the Syrian side of the buffer zone. CNN could not independently confirm that claim, but the village lies in the Syrian foothills of Mount Hermon, which Israeli forces captured on Sunday. Mount Hermon is a strategic high point that sits on the border between Syria, Lebanon, and the Golan Heights.


Golan Heights
The territory was seized by Israel from Syria in 1967 during the Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. It's considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions.

Israeli ground forces entered Syrian territory after Netanyahu on Sunday ordered the military to seize that demilitarized “area of separation” between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. That zone was established in 1974, after Israeli forces – responding to a Syrian attack – captured the Golan Heights in 1967. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, but it is still considered to be occupied Syria under international law.

Israeli officials have refused to give details on how far Israeli forces will advance, or how long they will stay there. Danny Dannon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council in a letter on Monday that his country had “deployed temporarily in few points.” He said they were “limited and temporary measures to counter any further threat to its citizens.”

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[oil&gas]

Russia launches missile attack, seizes Ukraine's territory as Putin
pledges to change the face of Europe. This is the kind of change of
tune Putin may emulate first to strike a better peace agreement for
Russia with Trump.

 

[basketcase]

You're acting like destroying weapons depots before a wide coalition of Jihadist force get them is a bad thing.

Even if HTS is able to keep a lid on extremists, there is likely to be continued fighting between the various factions so the elimination of more advanced weaponry will help save civilian lives.

 

[oil&gas]

You're acting like destroying weapons depots before a wide coalition of Jihadist force get them is a bad thing.

They are destroying weapons before the new regime succeeding
Assad's government fully takes over.

Even if HTS is able to keep a lid on extremists, there is likely to be continued fighting between the various factions so the elimination of more advanced weaponry will help save civilian lives.

Sounds like a preemptive attack before the country is back in order?
To my knowledge the rebels who overthrow Assad did not invite Israel
to bomb their country to save civilian lives. With Assad gone those
advanced weaponry are assets of the people of Syria. Who has the right
to destroy weapons belonging to the new government of a sovereign state
who has the backing of its people?

 

[Leimonis]

Sounds like israel conducted the most successful 48hr bombing campaign ever

 

[Uwauwa]

Good

 

[basketcase]

They are destroying weapons before the new regime succeeding
Assad's government fully takes over.

Yes, exactly. The US and Canada would do the exact same thing if a loose coalition of jihadist groups on our border were about to take possession of advanced weaponry. And sorry but HTS is one of the more moderate groups within their coalition but are still on Canada's list of designate terrorist entities and their open animosity to Israel makes it an easily justifiable decision for Israel to try and disarm them.

But if you want to argue that Syria is better off if the many factions in the war that oppose each other are very well armed... Part of the death toll in Sudan is because the two sides have exactly those types of weapons.

 

[oil&gas]

Yes, exactly. The US and Canada would do the exact same thing if a loose coalition of jihadist groups on our border were about to take possession of advanced weaponry. And sorry but HTS is one of the more moderate groups within their coalition but are still on Canada's list of designate terrorist entities and their open animosity to Israel makes it an easily justifiable decision for Israel to try and disarm them.

Thankfully the rebels is just a coalition of groups tied together by the goal
to overthrow a regime they hate. Pre-emptive strike is not as easily justified
if the target has more legitimacy as leader of the country. It is imperative
to attack before a new government is established. In retrospect American
invasion of Vietnam and Saddam Hussien's Iraq as well as Putin's invasion
of Ukraine could have been better planned.

But if you want to argue that Syria is better off if the many factions in the war that oppose each other are very well armed... Part of the death toll in Sudan is because the two sides have exactly those types of weapons.

I presume the people of Syria would not want to see military assets built at their
cost and needed for future national security destroyed by missile attacks from a
foreign country. I am sure the people of Ukraine are not thrilled by Putin's
missile attacks as well.

 

[Leimonis]

I presume the people of Syria would not want to see military assets built at their
cost and needed for future national security destroyed by missile attacks from a
foreign country. I am sure the people of Ukraine are not thrilled by Putin's
missile attacks as well.

I missed that moment when Ukraine turned into a territory run over by several jihadist groups supported by various foreign islamist regimes

 

[The Oracle]

They are destroying weapons before the new regime succeeding
Assad's government fully takes over.

Yes because they don't trust the potential of what is to come. It's the shrewd move. They've seen this coming.

Assad was a known quantity.

How long before the loose anti Assad coalition turns on each? You know it's going to happen.

 

[oil&gas]

I missed that moment when Ukraine turned into a territory run over by several jihadist groups supported by various foreign islamist regimes

Hope for the moment when the entire Ukraine is in chaos and run over
by pro-Russian and anti-Russian fractions. By then NATO would finally
find the freedom to launch missiles into Ukraine to take out potential
Russian invaders of Europe.

 

[Leimonis]

Yes because they don't trust the potential of what is to come. It's the shrewd move. They've seen this coming.

Assad was a known quantity.

How long before the loose anti Assad coalition turns on each? You know it's going to happen.

and Iran is not going to accept this loss sitting down either. And none of them is a safe neighbour for israel. It was a super shrewd move albeit I can see how it would be crazy if was happening among civilized countries somewhere in europe

 

[wigglee]

Sure , just go ahead and bomb sovereign countries... what could go wrong? They've bombed Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and now Syria... I wonder why they so hated in the region?

 

[Leimonis]

Hope for the moment when the entire Ukraine is in chaos and run over
by pro-Russian and anti-Russian fractions. By then NATO would finally
find the freedom to launch missiles into Ukraine to take out potential
Russian invaders of Europe.

 

[Insidious Von]

Why would Syria re-align with Iran and Russia, all they brought them is misery and death.

Sweet Boy Putin has to hang in there until Trump is inaugurated. Then he'll be suckled back to health.

 

[oil&gas]

Why would Syria re-align with Iran and Russia, all they brought them is misery and death.

Whom can Syria align with? The U.S.? I doubt Syria with its arsenal
eliminated would be able to defend itself from land grab by Israel.

Sweet Boy Putin has to hang in there until Trump is inaugurated. Then he'll be suckled back to health.

 

[basketcase]

Thankfully the rebels is just a coalition of groups tied together by the goal
to overthrow a regime they hate. Pre-emptive strike is not as easily justified
if the target has more legitimacy as leader of the country. It is imperative
to attack before a new government is established. In retrospect American
invasion of Vietnam and Saddam Hussien's Iraq as well as Putin's invasion
of Ukraine could have been better planned.



I presume the people of Syria would not want to see military assets built at their
cost and needed for future national security destroyed by missile attacks from a
foreign country. I am sure the people of Ukraine are not thrilled by Putin's
missile attacks as well.

So you admit that Syria is ruled by a fragile coalition including designated terrorist entities and then turn around and say that neighboring countries should just sit around and see if they continue being terrorists?

 

[basketcase]

Sure , just go ahead and bomb sovereign countries... .

Pretty much every world and regional power has been bombing Syria for the past 15 years. Even the US coordinated with Assad in bombing groups like ISIS. It's almost like world powers see extreme jihadi groups as a threat.

 

[basketcase]

Why would Syria re-align with Iran and Russia, all they brought them is misery and death.
...

If HTS is interested in governing as opposed to just ruling, they will need money and access to international support. Russia is desperate to have a Med base and HTS may see it as a pragmatic way to get money and weapons, especially if the west remains skeptical about Islamist rule. I think it less likely that they will work with Iran simply because of the religious divide.

p.s. At this point there are effectively (at least) two different Syrias with the Kurds and the HTS coalition ruling their own territory and it is unknown how the Turkish ruled territories will choose.