Barely reported in the mainstream news, on 4 May, Israel conducted air strikes in eastern Syria, part of a recent campaign of multiple air attacks over the past two weeks. This most recent bombing killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi soldiers and wounded others, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On 28 April, the Israeli Air Force bombed the airport located outside Damascus, targeting areas suspected as a base for Iranian fighters.
This marked the third strike that week, and it came just 24 hours after Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett stated that the air attacks were being planned. Mr. Bennett stated at the time, “Keep your ears open. We’ve gone from a policy of blocking [Iran] to pushing it out.”
Militias supported by Iran and its allies are in control of much of eastern Syria, close to the border with Iraq.
Yoram Schweitzer, senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, when asked if the increase in air attacks was in defense of aggressive acts from Iran and Hezbollah or was taking advantage of the current coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Iran significantly hard, he answered, “I don’t know which one of the two it is, but might be a combination of the two.”
Consistently, Israel has conducted airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah fighters since the Syrian civil war ignited in 2011. Of particular concern to Israel is control of the Golan Heights boundary where it claims Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been trying to establish a presence.
In addition to the airstrikes by Israeli jet fighters within Syria, on 4 May, Syrian intelligence sources said Israeli helicopters fired several rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, targeting an area over the Syrian border housing Hezbollah militia.
According to Israeli Defense Minister Bennett, “For Iran, Syria is an adventure far from home: 1,000 kilometers from home, from the Golan Heights. For us, it’s life. Iranian soldiers who come to Syria and operate within Syria… they are risking their lives and playing with their lives. We will not allow the establishment of an advanced Iranian base in Syria.”
TRENDPOST: Again, with all attention glued to COVID, it was barely reported that a few days later, Israeli Defense Minister Bennett approved expansion of another housing project, i.e. “settlement,” in the occupied West Bank.
Without international condemnation for its actions, despite Israel being in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies,” the 7,000 new housing units will nearly double the size of the “settlement.”
