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Israel is carrying out dozens of airstrikes across Syria, according to reports


Syrian media reports say that Israeli warplanes have carried out dozens of attacks across the country, including the capital, Damascus.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there were more than 100 strikes on military targets.

A research center suspected of having links to chemical weapons production was among the sites hit, according to local media reports.

Israel says it is acting to stop weapons “getting into the hands of extremists” after the ouster of the Assad regime.

Map showing the location of Israeli strikes on Syria since December 8

(BBC)

At the same time, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the country's situation after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.

The SOHR says there have been hundreds of airstrikes in Israel in the past two days, including on a site in Damascus allegedly used for the development of rocket launchers. -scientist from Iran.

The strikes come as the UN chemical watchdog is warning Syrian authorities to ensure that stockpiles of suspected chemical weapons are safe.

According to the UN's chemical watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a chemical weapon is a chemical agent used to cause death or intentional harm through its toxic properties. his, outside.

The use of chemical weapons is prohibited under international humanitarian law regardless of whether there is a legitimate military target, as the effects of such weapons are indiscriminate in nature.

It is not known where or how many chemical weapons there are in Syria, but it is believed that former President Bashar al-Assad kept stocks and his declaration was not complete.

Syria signed the OPCW Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, a month after a chemical weapons attack on the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, that involved the nerve agent sarin and left more than 1,400 people dead.

The horrific pictures of victims writhing in agony shocked the world. Western powers said only the government could have carried out the attack, but Assad blamed the opposition.

Despite the OPCW and the UN destroying all 1,300 tons of chemicals declared by the Syrian government, chemical weapons attacks in the country still continued.

BBC analysis in 2018 found that between 2014 and 2018, chemical weapons have been used in the Syrian civil war at least 106 times.

On Monday, the OPCW said it had contacted Syria “with a view to emphasizing the importance of ensuring the safety and security of all chemical weapons materials and facilities” in the country.

Also on Monday, the Israeli military released photos of its troops crossing from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria where United Nations peacekeepers are stationed.

It comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was armed control temporarily seized of the so-called Separation Area, saying the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had “collapsed” when the rebels took over the country.

The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) southwest of Damascus.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the final stages of the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it unilaterally in 1981. The move was not recognized internationally, although the US did unilaterally in 2019.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Saar said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were only taking a “very limited and temporary measure” taken for “security reasons”.

He also said that Israel was not interested in getting involved in the internal affairs of Syria and that it was only involved in protecting its citizens.

Meanwhile Israeli Defense Minister Katz said the Israeli military would “destroy heavy strategic weapons” – including missile and air defense systems.

Map showing the location of the Golan Heights, an area between Syria and Israel

(BBC)

The latest moves by Israel come after Syrian rebel fighters captured the capital, Damascus, and overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad. He and his father had been in power in the country since 1971.

Forces led by the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered Damascus in the early hours of Sunday, before appearing on state television to announce that Syria was now “free “.

On Sunday, Netanyahu celebrated the fall of the Assad regime as a “historic day in the Middle East”.

The Assad regime received significant support from Hezbollah and Russia in the country's brutal civil war. With Hezbollah involved in the Israel-Gaza war and cross-border airstrikes between Israel and Lebanon, and Russia spending huge resources when it invaded Ukraine, HTS, along with other rebel groups in Syria, able to seize the event and were the last to seize large parts of Syria.

During the Syrian revolution in 2011, Israel made the calculation that Assad, despite being an ally of Iran and Hezbollah, was a better bet than what could follow his regime.

On Sunday, Netanyahu declared that Israel would extend a “hand of peace” to Syrians who wanted to live in peace with Israel.

He said the IDF's presence in the buffer zone was a “temporary defensive situation until an appropriate settlement is found”.

“If we can establish a neighborly relationship and a peaceful relationship with the new forces that are emerging in Syria, that is our desire. But if we do not do that, we will do whatever it takes to destroy the State of Israel and the border of Israel to protect,” he said.

Israel is likely to be more sensitive about the Golan Heights, as HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani's family has roots there. Thousands of Israeli settlers now live in the area along with around 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze, who stayed after it was captured.

Israeli strikes in Syria are nothing new. They have previously admitted to carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria they say are linked to Iran and armed groups such as Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes in Syria have reportedly increased since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

Just last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, reported that a series of strikes hit a military base and other locations in and around an area near Palmyra where families Iranian-backed militia fighters. , killing 68 Syrian and foreign fighters.



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