Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirms that the Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike in the Syrian capital of Damascus a on Thursday, while threatening the country’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“Wherever terror activity against Israel is organized, the extreme Islamic leader al-Jolani will find the Air Force aircraft flying above and striking terror targets,” Katz says, using Sharaa’s nom de guerre.
“Islamic terrorism will not have immunity in Damascus nor anywhere else,” he adds.
He does not say what was targeted in the strike.
Israel’s defence minister has reaffirmed the country’s intention to occupy a swath of Syrian territory beyond Israel’s contested northern borders for an “unlimited amount of time” during a visit to the strategic Mount Hermon.
“The IDF is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time. We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarised and clear of weapons and threats,” Israel Katz said on a visit to the peak on Wednesday.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, Israeli forces moved to control a 400 sq km demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian territory. The zone, which lies between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, was created by the UN after the 1973 Yom Kippur war, or Ramadan war as it is known in Arabic. A UN force of about 1,100 troops has patrolled the area since then.
Assad was ousted by a coalition of rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has its origins in extremist Islamist organisations including both al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
The new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, says he severed ties with extremist groups years ago and has promised a representative government and religious tolerance.
