As armed Islamic groups consolidate their hold on power in Syria in the post-Assad era, Israel is destroying the country’s ability to pose a military threat to the region. On Saturday, Israeli fighter jets allegedly hit military sites in and around the Syrian capital, Damascus, including multiple missile storage facilities located deep underground, the Israeli media reported, citing Syrian sources.
“Israel launched a series of strikes early Saturday targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, including rocket depots buried deep under a mountain, a Syrian war monitor said, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago,” The Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the latest round of strikes. Still, they disclosed earlier this week that it was carrying out an aerial operation aimed at destroying the ousted regime’s long-range military capabilities.
The IDF conducted at least 500 airstrikes since Assad fled to Moscow, and his military melted away in the face of an Islamic rebel offensive. In less than a week, the Israeli strikes “had destroyed around 80% of Syria’s larger-scale firepower,” the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday. Israel now had virtual air superiority in Syria after “destroying over 90% of the identified strategic surface-to-air missiles,” the IDF declared Thursday.
The destruction of Syria’s Russian-supplied air defense systems gives Israel much-needed air superiority across the Middle East, making Iran more vulnerable in case of future Israeli air strikes. “Syria’s aerial defense network is among the strongest in the Middle East, and the damage inflicted represents a significant achievement for the Israeli Air Force’s superiority in the region,” the IDF disclosed Thursday.
The Israeli Air Force “inflicted severe damage on Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets and helicopters, Scud missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea precision-guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, rockets, and more,” the IDF revealed.
After Assad’s fall, the IDF has also secured a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border. The Israeli infantry and armored forces moved into the area to ensure a security cordon guaranteed on the Syrian border under the UN-backed 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Despite France, Russia, and some Muslim states calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the security zone, the IDF has been digging in to hold the forward position as various Islamic and ethnic groups vie for power in Syria. Israeli Defense Minister Israel “Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus, adding to signs that Israel is planning a prolonged military presence in Syria,” Sky News (UK) reported Saturday.
The Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah continues to violate President Joe Biden-backed ceasefire along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The Israeli military targeted Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure along the northern border in retaliatory operations.
“The IAF struck a loaded and ready-to-use launcher aimed at Israel in violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military said Saturday.
The IDF on Friday night destroyed a rocket site and weapons depot next to a humanitarian aid warehouse.
“Overnight, the IAF struck several weapons storage facilities and terrorists who were operating in the vicinity of the launch site,” the IDF announced Saturday. The rockets were launched approximately 50 meters away from an active international aid warehouse in Gaza,” the IDF noted.
The Israeli airstrike came after Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired rockets at southern Israel. “The Gaza-based terrorists of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) on Friday fired two rockets on southern Israel, triggering alert sirens in Ashkelon and the environs,” Israel’s i24NEWS TV channel reported. “Both rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile shield.”
The IDF on Saturday struck a Hamas command center operation inside a former school.
“A short while ago, … the IAF conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were planning to commit terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip and against Israeli territory in the immediate future,” The military said in a statement. “The terrorists were operating inside a command and control center embedded within a compound that previously served as the ‘Yaffa’ School in Gaza City.”
With Hamas deliberately placing its terrorist infrastructure in civilian and humanitarian areas, the Israeli military undertook several measures to “mitigate the risk of harming the international aid site and civilians,” the IDF said.
Hamas on Sunday released another video showing the body of unidentified Israel hostages. The Gaza-based terrorist group has repeatedly published videos of hostages in bid to demoralize Israel people and pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to end the military operation in Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
Hamas published a video of the body of at least one unidentifiable hostage seen with tattoos in a video to the terror group’s Telegram channel on Saturday evening.The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, wrote in a statement on Saturday evening that the IDF struck a place where hostages were held. (…)Shortly after, Hamas published a second video, captioned, “Netanyahu’s biggest dream is for them to all die.
The Israeli military on Saturday released recently discovered video footage showing the mass torture of Gaza civilians by Hamas. The video shows Hamas terrorists brutally beating a detainees and throwing him down a staircase.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
New footage revealed by the IDF shows Hamas torturing Palestinian prisoners in its detention facilities in the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Saturday evening.The surveillance footage is dated to 2023, and it captured Hamas’s Al-Katiba Prison in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Adraee said. (…)The footage also identifies two Hamas terrorists beating a prisoner and throwing him down the stairs. The two terrorists were identified as Mohammed Mohammed Shaaban Shubaki and Mahmoud Saber Mahmoud Abd Al-Al. Both are members of Hamas’s internal security agency, which is responsible for detaining and imprisoning Gaza residents, the military said.
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