Israeli air forces have carried out dozens of assaults concentrating on navy and ammunition websites throughout Syria, because the de facto Syrian chief warned in opposition to the incursion however added that his nation doesn’t desire a new battle.
“More than 60 Israeli air strikes occurred during the last 12 hours,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from the Syrian capital, Damascus, stated, including that Israel has carried out about 800 air raids throughout Syria because the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad final week.
“We have heard a number of loud explosions, which have been virtually a routine right here. The focus of Israeli air strikes is Damascus and its outskirts,” stated Serdar, confirming that ammunition depots and air defence methods had been struck in a district of Damascus.
“This has been a part of the Israeli technique because the fall of the al-Assad regime to depart the nation with out air defences in opposition to its assaults,” Serdar stated.
Israeli forces have additionally destroyed roads, energy traces, and water networks within the southeastern Quneitra area after folks refused to observe their orders to evacuate, based on Al Jazeera’s Muntasir Abou Nabout.
“Israeli tanks are actually stationed in cities and villages in Syria’s southwest because the Israeli navy expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights,” stated Nabout, reporting from Quneitra.
Israeli troops entered the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights final weekend in a transfer the UN stated violated the 1974 armistice settlement.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated Israel launched 61 missiles at Syrian navy websites in lower than 5 hours in a single day, hanging navy warehouses in Homs, Deraa, Suwayda and the Qalamoun mountains close to Damascus, in addition to air defences on the Hama airport.
SOHR additionally printed footage from what it stated was an Israeli assault on a navy camp within the city of Ain Mneen close to Damascus.
The chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and de facto head of Syria’s new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, stated Israelis can not justify their latest actions in Syria, however added that his nation was not able to be drawn into a brand new battle.
“The Israelis have clearly crossed the disengagement line in Syria, which threatens a brand new unjustified escalation within the area,” al-Sharaa stated, including that regardless of the violation, “the overall exhaustion in Syria after years of warfare and battle doesn’t permit us to enter new conflicts.”
“The precedence at this stage is reconstruction and stability,” he added.
Speaking to journalists in Damascus, he additionally pledged to disband all Syrian factions, declaring that “no weapons will exist exterior the authority of the Syrian state”.
Meanwhile, the United States stated on Saturday that it had made contact with HTS, regardless of the US having designated the group as “terrorist” in 2018.
“We’ve been involved with HTS and with different events,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken advised reporters, with out specifying how the contact occurred.
Blinken and different diplomats from the Arab states and Turkiye held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, on Saturday.
In a joint assertion, they known as for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and consultant authorities fashioned by means of a clear course of”, with respect for human rights.
Rob Geist Pinfold, lecturer in peace and safety at Durham University, famous that because the begin of the Israeli assaults, there was a rising “disconnect” between Israel and the US. He stated Israel is hanging Syria “just because they will”.
“They don’t know concerning the new regime and who’s on the opposite aspect,” he advised Al Jazeera. “The Israelis are erring on the aspect of warning right here. The downside is in addition they escalate.”
The indisputable fact that Syria’s new rulers are saying they don’t intend to struggle Israel, Pinfold stated, is “an enormous change as a result of Syria has been a core state who’s been combating Israel for many years”.
