Confirming ongoing strikes in southern Syria, Israel responds to the new Syrian government’s demand for the complete removal of Israeli troops from Syrian territory.
NOTE: The video is from a previous report.
“We are determined to prevent southern Syria from turning into another southern Lebanon,” stated Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in relation to the airstrikes. He emphasized that any efforts by Syrian regime forces and terrorist groups in the country to establish a presence in the security zone in southern Syria will be aggressively countered.
Katz said the Israeli Air Force is “now attacking strongly in southern Syria as part of the new policy we have defined of pacifying southern Syria.”
“We will not endanger the security of our citizens,” he said.
Israel confirmed the strikes after Syrian state media reported several aircraft strikes near Damascus.
Since the downfall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, Israeli forces have maintained control of the demilitarized buffer zone along Syria’s border.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israeli forces will remain in the buffer zone, which separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, for some time.
Earlier this week, during remarks at a military graduation, Netanyahu vowed that Israel will not allow Syria’s new army or the rebel group that toppled the Assad regime to “enter the area south of Damascus,” The Associated Press reported.
Earlier Tuesday, the new Syrian government called for the “immediate and immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Syria, condemning the presence as a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian state.”
Katz said last week that IDF troops will also remain in some areas of southern Lebanon, past the deadline for total withdrawal as outlined in its ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, to “ensure the protection of all Israeli communities and deterrence against threats from Lebanon.”
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