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More Israeli air raids on Syria despite UN warning
More Israeli air raids on Syria despite UN warning
by AFP Staff Writers
Damascus (AFP) April 3, 2025

Israeli warplanes launched more air strikes against military targets in Syria on Thursday, hours after the United Nations said such attacks "undermine efforts to build a new Syria".

Thursday's air raids came after a wave of Israeli strikes on military targets, including an airport, and a ground incursion in the south killed 13 people.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two strikes "on military positions and posts" in the vicinity of Al-Kiswah and Al-Muqaylibah outside Damascus.

It said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Since Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has been bombing Syrian military assets extensively and has conducted ground incursions into southern Syria to repel the new government's forces from the border.

UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen decried "the repeated and intensifying military escalations by Israel in Syria, including air strikes that have reportedly resulted in civilian casualties".

"Such actions undermine efforts to build a new Syria at peace with itself and the region, and destabilise Syria at a sensitive time," he said in a statement.

Authorities in the southern province of Daraa said nine civilians were killed and several wounded in Israeli shelling overnight near the town of Nawa.

The provincial government said the bombardment came amid Israel's deepest ground incursion into southern Syria so far.

Israel said it had responded to fire from gunmen during an operation in southern Syria and warned interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa he would face severe consequences if its security was threatened.

The Observatory said the dead were gunmen killed "while attempting to confront Israeli forces, following calls by the mosques in the area for jihad against the Israeli incursion".

- 'Military threat' -

An angry crowd gathered Thursday for the funeral of those killed in Daraa.

"This is an agricultural area... where no one threatens Israeli forces. We want to live in peace, but we do not accept attacks," said one, 48-year-old Khaled al-Awdat.

Israel's military said its forces had been conducting operations in the Tasil area near Nawa, "seizing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure" when "several gunmen fired at our forces".

They responded "and eliminated several armed terrorists from the ground and from the air", a spokesperson said. There were no Israeli casualties.

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 into the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the 1974 armistice line on the Golan Heights.

On Wednesday, Israel hit targets across Syria including in the Damascus area.

Syria's 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 on Telegram.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz hit back, pointedly referring to Sharaa 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.

- 'Normalise violence'-

"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," Katz added.

A Syrian source told AFP the T4 airbase was coveted by the new government's main foreign backer, Turkey.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Turkey of playing a "negative role in Syria".

"We don't think Syria should be a Turkish protectorate," he said.

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.

Neighbouring Jordan called Israel's repeated attacks on Syria a clear breach of the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries and a "flagrant violation of international law".

Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Thursday also condemned the Israeli attacks.

Israel says struck Hezbollah operative in south Lebanon
Jerusalem (AFP) April 3, 2025 - Israel's military said it carried out an air strike targeting a member of Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Thursday, its latest attack on the country in recent days.

"A short while ago, an IAF (Israeli air force) aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist who operated" in the area of Alma Al Shaab, a military statement said.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported that one person was wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the village near the border with Israel.

It had also reported two wounded in Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon by an Israeli drone strike that targeted a car.

An Israeli strike on Beirut on Tuesday killed a Hezbollah official handling Palestinian affairs, the second such raid since a November ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group.

The health ministry reported four dead in the strike, including a woman.

Israel and Hezbollah separately said the strike killed Hassan Bdair, who a source close to the Iran-backed group identified as its "deputy head for the Palestinian file".

Israel also attacked the Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital's south on Friday in response to rocket fire, after it issued an evacuation warning.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into all-out conflict last September, and the group remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the November 27 ceasefire.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems "strategic".

The agreement also required Hezbollah to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south as the Israeli military pulled back.

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