Qatar, Saudi Arabia condemn Israeli shelling in southern Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Qatar and Saudi Arabia condemned Tuesday a deadly Israeli strike on Syria’s southern Daraa province, which Israel said was in response to incoming fire.

An Israeli strike on Tuesday killed six people, including a woman, and injured several others in Daraa, according to local authorities.

“The Kingdom reiterates its categorical rejection of the Israeli occupation authorities' continued attempts to undermine the security and stability of Syria and the region through their blatant and repeated violations of relevant international law,” a statement from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said.

The Qatari foreign ministry also condemned the attack as “a dangerous escalation and a blatant violation of international law,” reiterating its support for Syria and urging the international community to pressure Israel to stop its attacks.

The strike prompted Damascus to call for an international probe into the Israeli “transgressions.”

“We reaffirm our firm rejection of these crimes and call for an international investigation into the transgressions committed [by Israel] against innocent civilians,” the Syrian foreign ministry statement read.

Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have actively engaged with Syria's interim government, headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebel coalition that ousted the Bashar al-Assad regime in December.

Qatar has pledged support for Syria's reconstruction efforts, including plans to aid in funding public sector wages. Saudi Arabia has been providing humanitarian and energy aid to Syria, aiming to curtail extremist activities and counter Turkish and Iranian influence.

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it retaliated to “several terrorists who opened fire toward them in southern Syria” without disclosing an exact location.

On Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) also said they launched airstrikes on two military bases in Syria’s central Homs province to destroy "military capabilities" in the area.

Since Assad’s ouster in early December, Israel has scrambled to destroy Damascus’s military stockpiles. It also sent troops across the border into a buffer zone east of the annexed Golan Heights, justifying the move as a precaution amid the political instability in Syria.

Throughout the Syrian civil war, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes, often justifying them as targeting pro-Iran armed groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which supported Assad at the time.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia condemn Israeli shelling in southern Syria

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