Israel conducts air attacks near Syria’s Tartous

An Israeli army statement on Monday said that its forces “struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Qardaha”, the hometown of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, some 60km (37 miles) north of the Tartous port.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported “air strikes carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft on the surroundings of Tartous city, without recording human losses so far”, adding that “civil defence and specialised teams are working to confirm the location of the targets”.

In the wake of the lightning opposition offensive last December that toppled Syria’s longtime leader al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian military assets in what it said was a bid to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.

Last Tuesday, the Israeli army announced it carried out air strikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria, just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for demilitarising the area.

Israel has moved forces into a United Nations-monitored demilitarised zone within Syria after al-Assad’s removal, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. Israel has also taken control of areas outside of the buffer zone, including Mount Hermon, and has conducted repeated bombing raids on military sites.

Last week at Syria’s national dialogue conference participants affirmed their rejection of “provocative” statements by Netanyahu and urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop any “aggression and violations”, condemning “the Israeli incursion into Syrian territory”.

The conference also opposed Israel’s attempts to stoke sectarian tensions by indicating it was willing to protect Syria’s minority Druze community, many of whom live in the south of the country.