Israel strikes military sites in Syria, monitor says

CAIRO — Israel struck Syrian weapons depots and air defenses overnight, a group monitoring the conflict said Sunday, in what appeared to be part of an effort Israel says is aimed at depriving “extremists” of military assets after rebels seized power in Syria.

In all, Israel struck its neighbor 75 times in attacks that began Saturday night near the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the cities of Hama and Homs, according to the group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that has long tracked the conflict in Syria. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has struck Syria more than 450 times since the collapse of the Assad regime a week ago, according to the Observatory, destroying Syria’s navy and dozens of air bases, ammunition depots and other military equipment.

Israel’s military has also seized and occupied an expanse of territory in Syria over the de facto border between the two countries, including on the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon. Israel has given no timeline for its departure, apart from saying that it would stay until its security demands were met.

The head of the group leading the rebel coalition that now governs Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said in an interview Saturday with Syria TV, a pro-opposition channel, that Israel was using pretexts to justify its “unwarranted” territorial seizures in Syria. Still, he said, Syria could not afford any further conflict.

“Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations,” he said, adding that he was focused on diplomatic solutions. “The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction.”

The Observatory reported Sunday that Israeli forces in Syrian territory had asked residents of the countryside in western Daraa province to surrender their weapons, as they had done in other villages in the area Israel now occupies.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about its latest strikes in Syria.

Neither the previous Syrian government, led by President Bashar Assad, nor the new authorities in Damascus have attacked Israel, and Arab countries and France have called on Israel to withdraw and respect Syria’s sovereignty.

Israeli officials, however, say that the raids are necessary to secure the border and to keep Syria’s weaponry from falling into the hands of extremists while the country remains unstable. U.S. officials have echoed those statements, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Thursday that Israel had told the Biden administration that its presence in Syria was “a temporary move” to ensure “that this vacuum isn’t filled by something bad.”

With the Assad regime ousted, some fear a security vacuum that could allow the Islamic State group or other extremist groups to exploit the situation.

The group now in power in Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has long been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western countries for its roots in extremist movements such as al-Qaida.

But the group has installed a technocratic administration in Damascus and promised moderate, tolerant governance.

That has led some countries to consider lifting the terrorist designation to establish relations with Syria’s new leaders.

Visiting Israeli troops in the Golan Heights on Friday, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief of staff, insisted that his country was acting to secure its frontier and its citizens even as it crossed the lines established by a ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel in 1974. Israel had no intention of interfering in the future of a post-Assad Syria, he said.

“There was a country here that was an enemy state, its army collapsed, and there is a threat that terrorist elements could reach here,” Halevi said in remarks released by the military Saturday.

“We moved forward so that these terrorist elements will not establish themselves — extremist terrorists will not establish themselves right next to the border,” he said. “We are not intervening in what is happening in Syria. We have no intention of managing Syria. We are unequivocally intervening in what determines the security of Israeli citizens here.”

The overnight airstrikes lasted for about eight hours, according to the Observatory, which said that weapons and ammunition depots as well as bases in the mountains and countryside outside Damascus had been struck.

It said Israel had also targeted warehouses in the countryside outside Homs, air defenses at the airport in Hama and other sites.

Other foreign powers were also maneuvering to preserve their interests in the post-Assad era, including Russia, which in previous years had helped Assad stay in power, partly to hold onto its two military bases in Syria — springboards for its expanding military presence in Africa.

Journalists for The New York Times saw a convoy of dozens of Russian vehicles traveling west of Homs, on the road to Tartus. The vehicles included fuel tankers, buses and trucks with anti-aircraft guns, many with Russian flags.

Russia has not said what will happen with its forces in Syria.

Al-Sharaa, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was equivocal in his Saturday interview about Russia’s future in Syria, saying only that the relationship should be reevaluated “in a way that serves common interests.”

In Damascus, authorities led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said they were trying to reestablish security and public services that would enable the country to return to some semblance of normalcy.

The transitional administration announced on Telegram that all schools and universities were to start classes again Sunday, and institutions in Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus and other provinces did so.

Questions remained about how the new authorities would handle sectarian tensions between Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, to which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham belongs, and minorities, including the Alawites, a Shiite Muslim offshoot sect that includes the Assad family and many of its strongest supporters. Scattered acts of retribution and threats against Alawites and Shiites continued to be reported in Syria, despite the new administration’s repeated calls for minorities to be respected.

On Saturday, without giving a reason, it announced that it was opening centers in Latakia province, a former Assad stronghold, where people associated with the deposed regime would be required to register.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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