Reports indicate Israel conducts numerous air strikes throughout Syria

According to Syrian media, Israeli aircraft have conducted numerous assaults throughout the nation, encompassing the capital city of Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), based in the UK, reported over 100 bombardments targeting military installations. Local media sources indicated that a research facility, believed to be connected to chemical weapon manufacturing, was among the locations struck. Israel asserts its actions are intended to prevent weaponry from falling “into the hands of extremists” subsequent to the collapse of the Assad regime. The UN Security Council convened on Monday to address the nation’s circumstances after President Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power, stating their intention to draft a declaration in the forthcoming days. Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia informed journalists that “The council, I think, was more or less united on the need to preserve the territorial integrity and unity of Syria, to ensure the protection of civilians, to ensure that humanitarian aid is coming to the needy population.” The SOHR indicates that hundreds of Israeli aerial attacks have occurred over the last two days, one of which targeted a location in Damascus reportedly utilized by Iranian scientists for rocket development. These attacks coincide with a warning from the UN’s chemical watchdog, urging Syrian authorities to guarantee the security of suspected chemical weapon reserves. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which serves as the UN’s chemical watchdog, defines a chemical weapon as a substance employed to intentionally inflict death or injury via its poisonous characteristics. International humanitarian law forbids the deployment of chemical weapons, irrespective of a legitimate military objective, due to their inherently indiscriminate impact. The precise location or quantity of Syria’s chemical weapons remains unknown, though it is thought that former President Bashar al-Assad maintained reserves and that his previous declaration was not comprehensive. Syria endorsed the OPCW’s Chemical Weapons Certificate in 2013, one month following a chemical weapons assault on Damascus suburbs that utilized the nerve agent sarin and resulted in over 1,400 fatalities. The harrowing images of victims suffering in agony appalled the global community. Western nations asserted that only the government could have executed the attack, while Assad attributed it to the opposition. Even though the OPCW and the UN eradicated all 1,300 tonnes of chemicals declared by the Syrian government, chemical weapons assaults persisted within the country. A BBC analysis conducted in 2018 verified that chemical weapons were deployed a minimum of 106 times in the Syrian civil war between 2014 and 2018. The OPCW announced on Monday that it had reached out to Syria “with a view to emphasising the paramount importance of ensuring the safety and security of all chemical weapons related materials and facilities” within the nation. Furthermore, on Monday, the Israeli military published images of its forces traversing from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into Syria’s demilitarized buffer zone, where UN peacekeepers are stationed. This occurred a day after Israeli Prime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the military had temporarily taken command of the designated Area of Separation, asserting that the 1974 disengagement accord with Syria had “collapsed” due to the rebel seizure of the country. The Golan Heights constitutes a rocky elevated area situated approximately 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus. Israel captured the Golan from Syria during the final phase of the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally incorporated it in 1981. This action lacked international recognition, though the US unilaterally acknowledged it in 2019. During a press conference on Monday, Saar stated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was undertaking merely “a very limited and temporary step” for “security reasons.” He further asserted that Israel had no desire to interfere in Syria’s domestic matters and was solely focused on safeguarding its populace. Concurrently, Defence Minister Israel Katz declared that the Israeli military would “destroy heavy strategic weapons,” which encompass missile and air defence systems. Israel’s recent actions follow the seizure of the capital, Damascus, by Syrian rebel combatants and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s administration. He and his father had governed the nation since 1971. Troops commanded by the Islamist opposition faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered Damascus during the early hours of Sunday, subsequently appearing on state television to proclaim that Syria was now “free.” HTS announced on Tuesday that the incoming authorities intend to release a list containing the “names of the most senior officials involved in torturing the Syrian people.” The organization stated its intention to provide incentives for intelligence regarding “senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.” The Assad regime garnered substantial backing from Hezbollah and Russia during the nation’s severe civil conflict. Given Hezbollah’s engagement in the Israel-Gaza war and cross-border aerial bombardments between Israel and Lebanon, and Russia’s significant resource allocation to its invasion of Ukraine, HTS, alongside other insurgent factions in Syria, capitalized on the opportunity and ultimately secured extensive portions of Syria. In the course of the 2011 Syrian uprising, Israel assessed that Assad, notwithstanding his alliance with both Iran and Hezbollah, represented a more favorable option than any potential successor to his government. On Sunday, Netanyahu characterized the downfall of the Assad regime as a “historic day in the Middle East” and affirmed that Israel would “send a hand of peace” to Syrians desiring peaceful coexistence with Israel. He stated that the IDF’s deployment in the buffer zone constituted a “temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.” He added, “If we can establish neighbourly 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.” Israel is anticipated to exhibit heightened sensitivity regarding the Golan Heights, given that HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani’s family originates from the region. Thousands of Israeli settlers currently reside there alongside approximately 20,000 Syrians, predominantly Druze, who remained after its capture. Israeli aerial attacks in Syria are not unprecedented. Israel has previously admitted to conducting hundreds of bombardments in recent years against targets in Syria that it claims are associated with Iran and allied armed factions like Hezbollah. Reports indicate that Israeli strikes in Syria have intensified since the commencement of the Gaza war in October 2023, occurring in retaliation for cross-border assaults on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other organizations in Lebanon and Syria. Only last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based surveillance organization, documented that a series of strikes impacted a weapons storage facility and other sites in and around a region near Palmyra where families of Iran-backed militia combatants were present, resulting in the deaths of 68 Syrian and foreign fighters. 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