Six Syrian troops killed in latest Israeli strikes near Damascus
Israeli drone strikes have killed at least six Syrian soldiers in the Damascus countryside, Syrian state TV reported early on Wednesday.
It comes after Syria's government condemned Israel earlier this week for repeatedly violating its sovereignty, accusing 60 Israeli troops of entering fresh Syrian territory near Mount Hermon.
The Israeli army claimed its troops were on a “routine operation” in southern Syria, much of which it now occupies, and not in Beit Jinn, the area Syria identified.
Syria’s foreign ministry said Wednesday's strikes pose a direct threat to “regional peace and security”.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has accused Israel of installing military positions and intelligence stations in occupied areas, saying they are part of Israel's “expansionist and partition plans”.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month openly promoted his vision for a “Greater Israel”, a project that seeks to colonise Palestinian territories and large parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since capturing the raised plateau in 1967 and has steadily tightened control over the area.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has seized over 400 sq km of additional Syrian territory, including Mount Hermon’s summit, a strategic peak rising more than 2,800 metres above sea level.
Israeli officials have celebrated these land grabs as part of a so-called “defensive strategy”, but critics say Israel’s campaign is a brazen act of settler-colonial expansion and part of a wider policy of regional destabilisation.
In January, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to hold Mount Hermon “indefinitely”.
The developments come as Israel wages a genocidal war in Gaza, where it has killed more that 62,000 people, and continues its occupation of southern Lebanon.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
