Israel launches ground operation in Syria after deadly airstrikes
Israeli forces launched a ground operation into Syria’s southern Daraa province, The New Arab reported on March 18th.
Israeli forces invaded a village, located in the western Daraa countryside, and were accompanied by heavy machinery.
Israeli strikes across the Daraa province wounded nineteen people and killed at least three civillians. Israeli drones also hovered over Daraa and the Yarmouk Basin before targeting Syria’s 132nd Brigade in Daraa.
Local resident, Omar al-Hariri, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed “I heard the sounds of huge explosions. It later turned out that these sounds were caused by Israeli airstrikes on military assets around the cities of Daraa and Izraa.” Hariri said that the sites destroyed in the strikes supposedly contained weapons and ammunition.
Israel has justified its attacks on Syria for years by claiming it is eliminating Iranian military targets. However, Iran has said none of its forces are currently in Syria, Al Jazeera reported on February 23rd.
The New Arab reported that the previous Syrian regime’s sites had been rehabilitated by the country’s new administration’s forces.
“We will not allow forces from the HTS organisation or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus,” Netanyahu said, in reference to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad last in December.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had targeted “military targets in southern Syria, including command centres and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian regime”.
Since Assad’s fall in December, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Syria and expanded its Golan Heights occupation by relocating forces into a UN-patrolled buffer zone.
The New Arab, Al Jazeera
