Why is Israel attacking Syria?
After the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Israel has been encroaching on its neighbour’s territory.
Since al-Assad’s dramatic flight to Russia on Sunday, Israel has attacked Syria more than 400 times and, despite UN protests, launched a military incursion into the buffer zone that has separated the two countries since 1974.
These aggressions have come as the country tries to transition away from 53 years of dynastic family rule.
In the last few months, Israel has attacked its neighbour Lebanon and has continued to wage a war condemned as genocide on the beleaguered population of Gaza.
But why is Israel now attacking Syria? Here’s everything you need to know.
Why is Israel attacking Syria?
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.
Now, Israel says it is focused on destroying Syrian military infrastructure.
Israel claims that it is trying to stop weapons from landing in the hands of “extremists”, a definition it has applied to a rotating list of actors, most recently Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the primary Syrian opposition group that led the operation to overthrow al-Assad.
What did it hit?
Israel says it has targeted military facilities, including weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and research centres.
Israel has also deployed military units to the buffer zone along the Golan Heights separating Syria and Israel. The terrain has been an officially designated demilitarised zone as part of a 1974 UN-brokered ceasefire deal.
Israel occupies approximately two-thirds of the Golan Heights, with the UN-administered buffer zone spanning a narrow, 400-square-kilometre (154-sq-mile) area. The rest has been controlled by Syria.
Syrian security forces have also reported Israeli tanks advancing from the Golan Heights into Qatana, 10km (six miles) into Syrian territory and close to the capital.
Israeli military sources have denied any such incursion.
