Israel Escalates Against Syria

Israel has once again escalated its attacks against Syria despite engaging in a fierce war with Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip and border clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The escalation began on July 9 when Israeli strikes hit the coastal town of Baniyas in the northern Tartus countryside. Hebrew media alleged that the attack targeted an air defense system belonging to Iran-backed forces. There were no casualties.

Later on the same day, an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah senior commander Yasser Qarnabash, a former bodyguard to the group’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, near the village of Saboura on the Syrian part of the Damascus-Beirut highway.

Another member of Hezbollah was reportedly killed in the same strike, and the Syrian driver was critically wounded. The member was a mid-ranking official involved in transporting weapons across the border on behalf of Hezbollah.

On July 10, The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that its tanks and artillery shelled sites of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the southern Syrian governorate of al-Quneitra that had violated the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement.

The shelling reportedly targeted the Diriyah Regiments in the southern countryside of al-Qunitra. There were no casualties.

On July 12, a rocket fired from southern Syria struck an open area in the southern part of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, causing no injuries.

In response, the IDF said that it struck an SAA post near the town of Tasil in the western Daraa countryside. Again, no casualties were reported.

The situation escalated further on July 13, when two Iranian-made Shahed-type suicide drones were shot down by Israeli fighter jets and Iron Dome air defense systems near the southernmost Israeli city of Eilat. Hebrew media reported that the drones were launched from Syria, which was later confirmed by the IDF.

Israel responded by launching a wave of strikes against Syria on July 14. The targets struck during the attack included a central SAA command center, infrastructure and air defense systems, according to the IDF.

Syrian state-run media said that a soldier was killed and three others were injured in the Israeli attack, which targeted military sites in southern Syria and a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Kafr Sousa.

The escalation reached another level on July 15 when a suspected Israeli strike near the village of Saboura on the Damascus-Beirut highway killed prominent Syrian businessman Mohammad Baraa Qatarji, who was sanctioned by the United States, and another unidentified man.

Qatarji had been sanctioned in 2018 by the US Treasury for facilitating “shipments of fuel and weapons to the Syrian regime.”

All in all, Israel appears to be escalating against Syria to make up for its failure in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon. Upcoming months could see more escalation on this front.

Mirrored - South Front