“Israeli warplanes launched new airstrikes targeting weapons storage depots belonging to the forces of the former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in the Qalamoun Mountains in the Damascus countryside,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
After the fall of Assad’s government, Israel began striking warehouses and weapons depots of his army to prevent the stockpiles of weapons from falling into rebel hands.
Syria’s civil war dramatically reignited late last month when a coalition of rebels led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a blistering offensive against the Syrian army, seizing the northern city of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and culminating their victory by capturing the capital Damascus as Assad fled to Moscow, ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on areas formerly controlled by the Syrian regime through its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, that supported the Syrian army.
The strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israel, which retaliated by invading Gaza. The conflict later spread into Lebanon before a ceasefire was announced late last month.
Israel rarely confirms strikes attributed to it in Syria but has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold in the country.
