Israel conducts airstrikes in Damascus, southern Syria

DAMASCUS

Syrians lift placards as they demonstrate in the central Karama Square of the southern city of Suwayda on February 25, 2025, in rejection of statements made by Israel's premier on the weekend.

Israel carried out airstrikes late Tuesday on several locations in the Damascus countryside and Daraa province in southern Syria.

Israeli warplanes targeted the Al-Kiswah area south of Damascus and Izraa in Daraa with at least four airstrikes, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

One strike reportedly hit a weapons depot in Al-Kiswah, igniting a fire at the scene.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the strikes, warning that “any attempt by Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire.”

Katz said “the air force is currently striking southern Syria as part of our new policy to clear the area of weapons. The message is clear: we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”

“We will not endanger the security of our citizens,” he added.

The Israeli army said it carried out airstrikes on military targets in southern Syria, “including command centers and multiple sites containing weapons,” according to a statement released late Tuesday.

The army claimed that the presence of military equipment and assets in southern Syria “poses a threat to the citizens of Israel,” vowing “to operate in order to remove any threat.”

Syrian authorities have not issued a response.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reiterated Monday that Syria should be turned into a federal state with autonomous regions.

During an EU-Israel partnership meeting in Brussels, he said “a stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes different autonomous regions and respects different ways of life,” according to a statement by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel “will not allow the new Syrian army to move into territory south of Damascus.”

“We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria from troops of the new Syrian regime in Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda provinces,” Netanyahu said at a press conference in Holon, Tel Aviv District.

He said Israel will not tolerate any threats to the Druze community in southern Syria.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

The Israeli army also intensified airstrikes targeting Syrian military positions across the country.

Israel’s recent military advances in the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967, have drawn condemnation from the U.N. and several Arab nations.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party’s regime, which had been in power since 1963.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was appointed as the new Syrian president on Jan. 29, tasked Mohammed Al-Bashir with forming a government to oversee the transitional period.