Israel mum on latest strikes on Syria missile sites

December 17, 2024 TruthUSA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to the Golan Heights, stating, ‘We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it.’

According to a respected war monitoring group, Israel has conducted airstrikes on missile warehouses near the Syrian port of Tartous, marking the “most violent strikes” since 2012.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an independent network based in the UK, reported on its website on Dec. 16 that “violent explosions were heard in Tartous due to consecutive strikes and explosions of ground-to-ground missiles from the warehouses.”

SOHR stated that Israeli fighter jets targeted air defense positions of the former Syrian army, a missiles depot, and various missile launchers and bases in the Zama area, near Tartous.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not responded to these reports.

The Geographic Survey of Israel’s seismology department recorded a tremor at 11.49 p.m. local time on Dec. 15, with its epicenter located 17 miles off the coast near the Syrian city of Banias, as reported by Times of Israel.

Hebrew language media outlets suggested that the tremor may have been caused by heavy Israeli strikes in the Tartous area, although this has not been confirmed.

According to SOHR, there have been 473 Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.

‘Destroy Syria’s Military Assets’

“The attacks focused on military positions of former regime forces, including airbases, radar systems, air-defense units, weapons and ammunitions warehouses, as a part of efforts by Tel Aviv to completely destroy Syria’s military assets,” read a statement from SOHR on Dec. 16.

“Yesterday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a round of airstrikes, which was the most violent round ever since the beginning of airstrikes in Syrian territory in 2012.”

Israel announced that it destroyed several Syrian navy vessels and missile stockpiles on Dec. 10 to prevent them from falling into terrorist hands, as reported by The Epoch Times.

The Israeli Navy targeted the ports of Latakia and al-Bayda, where 15 Syrian vessels were docked.

A statement on the IDF website stated, “The IDF struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria, preventing them from falling into the hands of terrorist elements.”

Following Assad’s fall, Israeli troops entered a buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria, disregarding a 1974 cease-fire agreement between the two countries.

In 1981, Israel officially annexed the Golan Heights, which were captured from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, and former President Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the area in 2019.

On Dec. 15, Netanyahu announced plans to double the number of Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights, emphasizing its importance for Israel’s security and prosperity.

The transitional government in Syria, led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has raised concerns at the U.N. Security Council regarding Israeli aggression in the buffer zone but has expressed a desire to avoid military conflict with Israel.

Israel’s chief of the general staff, Herzi Halevi, visited the occupied buffer zone on Dec. 14 and stated, “We are here to defend along the border in the Golan Heights, northern Golan Heights, and Mount Hermon. There was a country here that was an enemy state, its army collapsed, and there is a threat that terrorist elements could reach here.”

“We moved forward so that these terrorist elements will not establish themselves. Extremist terrorists will not establish themselves right next to the border.”

“We are not intervening in what is happening in Syria. We have no intention of managing Syria.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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