The fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime has prompted a punitive military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes on military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops inside and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years. years, writes A2 CNN.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had carried out about 480 strikes across the country over the past two days, hitting most of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles, while Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli navy had destroyed the Syrian fleet overnight, hailed the operation as "a great success".
Just a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hailed the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime as "a new and dramatic chapter." But a day later, Netanyahu revealed that he was the one who approved the bombings because of the fact that Syrian weapons could fall into the hands of jihadists.
"We have no intention of interfering in Syria's internal affairs; however, we intend to do what is necessary for our safety. As such, I authorized the Air Force's bombing of strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian Army to prevent them from falling into the hands of jihadists. This is similar to what the British Air Force did when they bombed the fleet of France's "Vichy" regime, which was collaborating with the Nazis, so that it would not fall into Nazi hands. We want to have a relationship with the new regime in Syria, but if this regime allows Iran to be resettled in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons, or weapons of any kind, to Hezbollah we will respond forcefully and have a heavy price. What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this one," Netanyahu said.
Israeli officials have declined to give details on how far Israeli forces will advance, or how long they will stay there. Danny Dannon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council in a letter on Monday that his country was "temporarily deployed at several points". He said they were "limited and temporary measures to counter any further threats to its citizens". Meanwhile, Qatar considers it unacceptable for Israel to "exploit" the current situation in Syria and violate its sovereignty, the foreign ministry spokesman said at a press conference. (A2 Televizion)
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