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Agence France-Presse

Syria accused Israel on Thursday of mounting a deadly destabilisation campaign after a wave of strikes hit military targets, including an airport, and ground incursions left 13 people dead.
Israel said it responded to fire from gunmen during an operation in southern Syria and warned interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa that he would face severe consequences if its security was threatened.
Israel has carried out an extensive bombing campaign against Syrian military assets since Islamist-led rebels toppled long-time strongman Bashar al-Assad in November. It has also carried out ground incursions into southern Syria in a bid to keep the forces of the new government back from the border.
Authorities in the southern province of Daraa said nine civilians were killed and several wounded in Israeli shelling near the city of Nawa.

The provincial government said the bombardment came amid Israel’s deepest ground incursion into southern Syria so far.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead were local gunmen who were killed “while attempting to confront Israeli forces, following calls by the mosques in the area for jihad against the Israeli incursion”.
According to the Israeli military, its forces were conducting operations in the Tasil area, near Nawa, “seizing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure” when “several gunmen fired at our forces”.
They “responded by firing at them and eliminated several armed terrorists from the ground and from the air”, a spokesperson said. There were no Israeli casualties.
“The IDF (military) will not allow the existence of a military threat in Syria and will act against it,” the spokesperson added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded in February that southern Syria be completely demilitarised and said his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near Israeli territory.

In December, Netanyahu ordered troops to enter the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces along the 1974 armistice line on the Golan Heights.
On Wednesday, Israel hit targets across Syria including in the Damascus area.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the strikes resulted in the “near-total destruction” of a military airport in the central province of Hama and wounded dozens of civilians and soldiers.
“This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilise Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz hit back with a warning to Sharaa in which he pointedly referred to the president by the nom de guerre he used as an Islamist rebel commander.
“I warn Syrian leader Jolani: if you allow hostile forces to enter Syria and threaten Israeli security interests, you will pay a heavy price,” he said.
“The air force’s activity yesterday near the airports in T4, Hama and the Damascus area sends a clear message and serves as a warning for the future,” he added.
The Israeli military said its forces “struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian bases of Hama and T4, along with additional remaining military infrastructure sites in the area of Damascus”.
Israel has said it wants to prevent advanced weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.
Sharaa fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003 and later set up a Syrian branch of the jihadist network before breaking off all ties.
The Syrian ministry said the Israeli strikes came as the country was trying to rebuild after 14 years of war, calling it a strategy to “normalise violence within the country”.
During a visit to Jerusalem last month, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Israeli strikes on Syria were “unnecessary” and risked worsening the situation.


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Middle East

Israel warns Syrian leader of ‘heavy price’ after strikes on military sites, ground raids

Syrians look for metal pieces and unexploded ammunition at the site of  an Israeli air strike in northeastern Syria, on December 10, 2024. File photo: AFP

The aftermath of an Israeli air strike on a building in Damascus on March 13. File photo: AFP

Israeli troops on the Golan Heights side of the ceasefire line with Syria in December. File photo: Reuters

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A damaged building after an Israeli strike in southern Beirut. Photo: EPA-EFE

Damaged vehicles in the aftermath of the Israeli air strike. Photo: Reuters

The top two floors of a multi-storey building were destroyed. Photo: EPA-EFE

An Israeli warplane flying over southern Lebanon on March 28. Photo: AFP

Lebanon and Syria agree on ceasefire after deadly cross-border clashes

Syrian troops in the village of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali, Syria, near the Lebanon border. Photo: AP

Syrian families who fled clashes in Syria cross a river marking the border between Syria and northern Lebanon. Photo: AP

Kurds ponder future in Turkey, Syria and Iraq with guarded optimism

A protester holds a picture of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a rally in Diyarbakir, Turkey, last month. Photo: Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has given his tentative backing to peace talks with jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan. Photo: Reuters

A Syrian Kurd shows support of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Qamishli city. Photo: AFP

Syrian Kurds destroy the statue of Basel al-Assad, the late elder brother of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Qamishli city last December. Photo: AFP

Head of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria killed, Iraqi PM says

Iraqi Army soldiers hold a flag of Islamic State after regaining control of a village outside Mosul in 2016. Photo: AP

Syrian Democratic Forces members deploy outside a prison in Hasakeh in 2022 after taking over the facility from Islamic State forces. Photo: TNS

Syria’s government signs breakthrough deal with US-backed SDF

People celebrate after the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian SDF signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria’s new state institutions. Photo: Reuters

Syrian Democratic Forces commander Mazloum Abdi and Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Photo: SANA via AFP

A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter in Qamishli, northeastern Syria. File photo: AP

News

World

Israel calls latest strikes on Syria’s military sites and infrastructure a ‘warning for the future’


Israel calls latest strikes on Syria’s military sites and infrastructure a ‘warning for the future’.


War and conflict

Israel

Syria

Israel warns Syrian leader of ‘heavy price’ after strikes on military sites, ground raids

Israel calls latest strikes on Syria’s military sites and infrastructure a ‘warning for the future’

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