Following the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime over the weekend, Israel has been carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria and has also moved troops to the demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights, thus expanding the extent of Syrian territory under its control.
This Monday the Israeli army confirmed that it attacked the Syrian naval fleet in the ports of Al Bayda and Latakia, destroying numerous ships.
In a statement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attacks were aimed at “destroying strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel.”
He added that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a “great success.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck a wide range of targets – including airfields, military vehicles, anti-aircraft weapons and weapons production sites – in the Syrian capital Damascus, as well as in Homs, Tartus and Palmyra.
They also targeted weapons warehouses, ammunition depots and “dozens” of sea-sea missiles.
Israel claims it is taking these measures to ensure the safety of its citizens, but others say that is taking the opportunity to weaken a long-standing adversary.
What airstrikes has Israel carried out?
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claims to have documented more than 310 attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.
The attacks reportedly targeted Syrian army military facilities from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south, and included weapons depots, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and research centers.
Rami Abdul Rahman, founder of SOHR, said the attacks have been destroying “all the capabilities of the Syrian army” and that “the country’s lands are being violated.”
Israel says its actions are to prevent weapons from falling “into the hands of extremists” as Syria transitions to a post-Assad era.
What are Israel’s concerns regarding chemical weapons?
Israel is concerned about who could get hold of Bashar al Assad’s alleged chemical weapons arsenal.
It is not known where or how many of these weapons Syria has, but it is believed that former President Assad had them stored somewhere.
On Monday, the U.N. chemical weapons watchdog warned Syrian authorities to make sure any weapons they had were safe.
Ake Sellstrom, former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Syria, now an associate professor of histology at Umea University in Sweden, says Israel has been attacking Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities with its airstrikes.
“What Israel is doing is taking away assets,” he told the BBC. “They can be people, facilities or equipment.”
Forces loyal to Assad are known to have used sarin gas in an attack on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus in 2013, which is believed to have killed more than 1,000 people.
They are also accused of using chemical weapons in other more recent attacks.
Dr. Sellstrom says rebel forces may also have arsenals of chemical weapons, as they are known to have used them before against their enemies in Syria.
“Assad had these weapons to show some strength in the conflict with Israel, but he never used them directly. Now we have a totally different government.
“Israel is going to come in to clean up… everything it has in terms of chemical weapons.”
What is Israel doing in the Golan Heights?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his troops had taken control of the demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights, thus expanding the extent of Syrian territory it occupies in this region.
Netanyahu said it was a “temporary defensive position until a suitable agreement is found.”
“Israel has said it wants to prevent any attack like the one on October 7 by Hamas from the Syrian side,” says Professor Gilbert Achcar of SOAS University of London.
“But this is an opportunity to move forward and stop the approach of other forces to the border of the occupied zone.”
Israel’s takeover of the demilitarized zone has been roundly condemned in statements from Arab countries, and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry described it on Monday as “an occupation of Syrian territory and a flagrant violation of the 1974 Separation Agreement.”
Reports from Syria claimed that Israeli advances had gone beyond the zone of separation and had even reached 25 km from Damascus, but Israeli military sources denied these accusations.
For the first time, the IDF acknowledged that its troops are operating beyond the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, but spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the Israeli incursion had not gone significantly further.
What are the Golan Heights and who occupies them?
The Golan Heights are a rocky plateau located in southwestern Syria, occupied by Israel for more than half a century.
In the 1967 war, Syria bombed Israel in that area, but Israel quickly pushed back Syrian forces and seized about 1,200 square kilometers of the area, which it has placed under military control.
Syria attempted to retake the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but failed.
Both countries signed an armistice in 1974, and since then, there has been a UN observer force on the ceasefire line.
However, Israel annexed the area in 1981, in a move that has not been recognized by the vast majority of the international community.
Syria has said it will not sign any peace deal with Israel unless it withdraws from the entire Golan.
Most of the Syrian Arab inhabitants of the Golan Heights fled the area during the 1967 war. There are currently more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan area, housing approximately 20,000 people. The Israelis began building them almost immediately after the end of the 1967 conflict.
The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel rejects the accusation.
The settlers live alongside some 20,000 Syrians, most of them from the Druze sect, who did not flee when the Golan was taken.
Are Israel’s security fears justified?
Netanyahu has said that the Israeli Defense Forces’ occupation of the Golan Heights buffer zone is intended to be temporary, but that the withdrawal will depend on the behavior of Syria’s next government.
“If we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that is our wish,” he said. “But if we don’t, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and Israel’s border.”
“What is going through the minds of the Israelis is that there may be incursions into the Golan by forces inside Syria and to make sure there is no chance of that, they have gone deeper into the interior,” says HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
“However, Israel has already occupied territory in the Golan Heights as a security measure and fortified it afterwards. “I might do it again.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said that airstrikes on Syrian military bases They have been carried out solely to defend their citizens.
“That is why we attack strategic weapons systems, such as remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets, so that they do not fall into the hands of extremists,” he explains.
However, Professor Achcar states that “chemical weapons are not widespread in Syria, and are only in two or three places. But with more than 300 airstrikes they are trying to weaken the country much more.”
Israel considers Bashar al-Assad “the devil they know,” he says, but is not sure what will happen next.
“They believe that Syria will split into warring factions, as happened in Libya, and they fear that a faction hostile to Israel will emerge.
“They want to prevent a faction like that from using the weapons of the Syrian army against them.”
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