Israel, Seeing an Opportunity, Demolishes Syria’s Military Assets
Israel capitalized on the power vacuum in Syria to bomb targets across the country, saying it aims to keep weapons away from extremists.
Reporting from Jerusalem
As soon as it became clear on Sunday that there would be regime change in neighboring Syria, Israel began a sweeping aerial campaign.
By Tuesday, at least 350 airstrikes had leveled military assets across Syria, taking out the Navy, fighter jets, drones, tanks, air-defense systems, weapons plants and a wide array of missiles and rockets, according to the Israeli military.
Israeli officials said they were destroying weapons and military facilities to keep them out of the hands of Islamist extremists. The rebel group that led the toppling of the president, Bashar al-Assad, was formerly linked to Al Qaeda and is still designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations.
“We have no intention to meddle in Syria’s internal affairs, but we certainly intend to do whatever is needed to guarantee our security,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Tuesday.
The Israeli campaign over the past two days has been exceptional in force and scope, trying to ensure that whoever ends up in power in Syria will be significantly disarmed.
It followed months of intensified Israeli airstrikes on Syria, including on weapons depots belonging to Iran and Hezbollah. But the large-scale bombings this week have been far more comprehensive and devastating to Syria’s military capabilities, analysts said.
The assault delivered a blow to the infrastructure in Syria that Iran used to transport weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. And Mr. Netanyahu warned the country’s future leaders to prevent Iran from using Syrian territory again for its own military purposes.
The Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, congratulated the country’s missile ships on Tuesday for completing “the destruction of the Syrian Navy” the night before.
But the intense air assault on Syria at such a fragile moment raised alarm among some in the international community.
“This needs to stop,” the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. As Syrian factions attempt an orderly transition to a new government, it is “extremely important that we don’t see any action from any international actor that destroys the possibility for this transformation in Syria to take place,” he added.
The U.N. also expressed concern about Israel’s actions on the ground.
On Saturday, even before Mr. al-Assad fled the country, Israeli forces entered Syrian territory for the first time in 50 years. They have since taken control of a 155-square-mile demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights that has been patrolled by U.N. troops since the 1973 Middle East war. The zone abuts Syrian-controlled territory.
Approximate advance of the Israeli military into the buffer zone
Damascus
Lebanon
Israel shared photos of its troops on Mount Hermon.
SYRIA
Reported Israeli military advances into buffer zone, as of Dec. 9
Military zone closed by Israel
Israel told residents in five villages to stay in their homes.
GOLAN
HEIGHTS
Demilitarized
buffer zone
Israel
Sea of
Galilee
SYRIA
JORDAN
10 miles
Area of detail
Lebanon
Israel shared photos of its troops on Mount Hermon.
Reported Israeli military advances into buffer zone, as of Dec. 9
Military zone closed by Israel
Israel told residents in five villages to stay in their homes.
Israel
GOLAN
HEIGHTS
Demilitarized
buffer zone
SYRIA
Sea of
Galilee
SYRIA
JORDAN
10 miles
Area of detail
Israel captured the Golan during the 1967 Middle East war and annexed most of it in 1981. Most of the world views the area as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, but over the past decades, Israel has firmly defended the land.
Israeli’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said Israel’s incursion into the U.N.-controlled buffer zone was “limited and temporary.”
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, told reporters that the presence of Israeli forces in the area violated the 1974 agreement that created the buffer zone.
“There should be no military forces or activities in the area,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu said on Monday that the 1974 agreement had collapsed because Syrian troops protecting some of the buffer zone had abandoned their posts.
Egyptian officials said Israel’s actions “violate international law, undermine the unity and integrity of Syrian territory and exploit the current instability to occupy more Syrian land.” Egypt called on the U.N. Security Council to “take a firm stance against Israeli attacks on Syria, ensuring its sovereignty over all its territories.”
The Israeli military said its airstrikes had destroyed much of Syria’s military capabilities. Its targets included airfields, hangars, military structures, launchers, firing positions, at least 15 naval vessels and dozens of weapons-production sites. The strikes against Syria’s Navy also destroyed dozens of sea-to-sea missiles with ranges of 50 to 120 miles, the Israeli military said.
Photographs from Syria on Tuesday showed sunken boats at a shipyard, crumbled buildings and the charred remains of a science research center that had been linked to the country’s chemical weapons program, according to the news agencies that distributed the images.
“I’ve just watched dots all over the place — it’s been literally hundreds of attacks in the last 48 hours,” said Miri Eisin, a retired Israeli colonel who has been tracking the strikes for the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
“Thank Israel that Israel just destroyed the chemical weapons that nobody else was willing to touch,” she said.
Under Mr. al-Assad, the Syrian government used chemical weapons — particularly sarin nerve agent — against citizens numerous times during the 13-year civil war.
Over the past years, Israel had periodically bombed targets in Syria, and the intensity of those attacks had escalated recently.
In April, Israeli forces bombed an Iranian Embassy building in Damascus, killing senior Iranian military and intelligence officials. And in September, Israeli struck a Hezbollah missile production site in Syria before commandos rappelled down from helicopters to collect evidence.
But nothing had come close to the scale of this week’s attacks.
Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would like to forge relations with the new Syrian government — on certain conditions.
“If this regime allows Iran to reestablish itself in Syria, or allow for the proliferation of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah or attack us, we will respond forcefully and exact a heavy price,” he warned.
Ms. Eisin, the retired colonel, said Israel took advantage of a window of opportunity in Syria.
“You are trying to cut what you could never do in the past because if you did, you would be in an all-out war against Syria, Hezbollah” and Iran, she said.
Mr. Katz, the defense minister, said Israel’s move into the buffer zone on the Golan Heights aimed to prevent militants from amassing near Israel, as had happened in Gaza and Lebanon.
He said that Israeli forces would “establish a defensive area clean of weapons and terror threats in southern Syria.”
The ground advances generated nervous speculation that Israel might go further in capturing territory.
Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed that Israel forces had moved outside the buffer the zone in several areas. But he said that was because of the landscape and “not an offensive.”
Israeli forces “are not advancing toward Damascus,” Mr. Shoshani told reporters on Tuesday.
“We are not a side in this conflict, and we do not have any interests other than protecting our borders and the security of our civilians.”
Reporting was contributed by Johnatan Reiss, Nick Cumming-Bruce, Aaron Boxerman, Gabby Sobelman and Vivian Yee.
Jack Nicas is a foreign correspondent for The Times, covering the conflict in the Middle East from Jerusalem. More about Jack Nicas
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