Why Damascus has failed to prevent repeated Israeli strikes on Iranian targets on Syrian territory

Analysis Why Damascus has failed to prevent repeated Israeli strikes on Iranian targets on Syrian territory
Bashar Assad’s regime has seen its air defenses depleted by 13 years of civil war, leaving the country vulnerable to Israeli attacks. (AP/File)
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Updated 16 July 2024
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Why Damascus has failed to prevent repeated Israeli strikes on Iranian targets on Syrian territory

Why Damascus has failed to prevent repeated Israeli strikes on Iranian targets on Syrian territory
  • Israeli air attacks on Syrian soil have increased in frequency since the outbreak of war in Gaza
  • Syrians fear being dragged into wider regional war as Israel attacks suspected Iran-backed targets

LONDON: Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has repeatedly struck military targets on the nation’s territory. These attacks have sharply increased in frequency since the Gaza conflict erupted last October, with Israel seemingly free to act with impunity.

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that triggered the war in Gaza, Israel has mounted strikes against suspected Iran-backed targets on Syrian soil, leaving Syrians fearful that their country could be dragged into a wider regional conflagration between Israel and Iran.

A similar scene has been unfolding in neighboring Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have been exchanging cross-border fire since Oct. 8 last year, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and the mass displacement of civilians.

On Monday, a suspected Israeli drone strike on a car near the Lebanon-Syria border killed Mohammed Baraa Katerji, 48, a prominent Syrian businessman who had close ties to the government of President Bashar Assad, according to an Associated Press report quoting pro-government media and an official from an Iran-backed group.




A picture taken on January 21, 2019 shows Syrian air defense batteries responding to what the Syrian state media said were Israeli missiles targeting Damascus. (AFP)

The pro-government Al-Watan daily quoted unnamed “sources” as saying that Katerji was killed in a “Zionist drone strike on his car.” Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Katerji was apparently targeted because he used to fund the “Syrian resistance” against Israel in the Golan Heights, as well as his links to Iran-backed groups in Syria.

Israel rarely claims responsibility for such strikes on Syrian territory but has repeatedly given warning that it will not tolerate Iran gaining a military foothold there or using the country to transport advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Although Syrian air defenses and the Assad regime’s Russian allies have occasionally intercepted Israeli missiles over Syrian territory, they have failed to deter Israeli attacks on military installations and commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Indeed, at least 19 senior officials of the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force have been killed in suspected Israeli strikes since Oct. 7, including top-ranking officer Mohammad Reza Zahedi.




Rescue workers search in the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy a day after an air strike in Damascus on April 2, 2024. (AFP)

Israel’s ability to track high-profile targets and strike deep inside Syrian territory owes largely to its technological and military superiority and the comparative weakness of Syria’s defenses.

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, believes Israel has been attacking Syria for almost a decade simply because “Israel can.”

“Syria has no effective way to deter Israel from attacking it at will,” he told Arab News. “Israel has every incentive to destroy weapons sent to Syria from Iran or elsewhere, especially those that might end up strengthening Hezbollah.”




Charred cars lie in a parking lot in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in the neighbourhood of Kafr Sousse in Damascus, early on July 14, 2024. (AFP)

In late June, Israel reportedly struck multiple targets in southern Syria, including a pro-Iran service center and an IRGC stronghold in the Sayyida Zainab area south of Damascus, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

SOHR said the suspected Israeli strike killed three people, including an elderly woman, and injured 11 others. State media cited a military source saying two people were killed and one soldier was injured. Syrian air defenses were activated but failed to repel the attack.

“Iran and Hezbollah have no answer to Israel’s technological superiority,” said Landis. “Syria’s air force is in shambles, its anti-aircraft missiles are inadequate, and Russia does not want to alienate Israel, which could easily seek revenge against Russia by helping Ukraine.”

The Israel Defense Forces saw its arms expenditure increase by more than 200 percent — from $1.8 billion in September to $4.7 billion in December 2023 — according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.




People gather outside a buildling reportedly targeted by Israeli air strikes in the Kafr Sousa district of the Syrian capital Damascus on February 21, 2024. (AFP)

Moreover, the US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, making it the IDF’s biggest arms supplier. Second to the US is Germany, which sold Israel $326.5 million worth of arms last year alone.

Calls by several UN rights experts and pro-Palestine activists for an arms embargo on Israel have fallen on deaf ears. Even a case brought by Nicaragua to the International Court of Justice to halt Germany’s arms sales to Israel was rejected in April.

Mohammed Al-Basha, a senior Middle East analyst at the research network Navanti Group, agrees with Landis that “Syrian government and Hezbollah aircraft defense and anti-aircraft capabilities are limited.”




People inspect damage in the aftermath of an Israeli air strike that hit the medieval Citadel of Damascus on February 19, 2023. (AFP)

He told Arab News: “These capabilities are generally quite restricted and likely concentrated around key targets, such as Damascus.”

He added that the Syrian government and Hezbollah “primarily receive their air defense systems from countries like Russia, Iran, and possibly China.

“While Syria may have had some capacity to counter missile attacks five years ago, as evidenced by their response to a strike by US President Donald Trump’s administration … it is now likely that Russia is prioritizing these resources for its own conflicts in Ukraine, South Ossetia, and potentially Transnistria.”




Members of the Syrian army deploy in the Al-Rashidin 1 district, in Aleppo’s southwestern countryside, on February 16, 2020. (AFP)

On April 14, 2018, the US, UK, and France fired more than 100 missiles at three government sites in Syria, claiming these were chemical weapons facilities. Russia said Syrian air defenses downed at least 71 incoming cruise missiles.

Whatever the condition of Syria’s air defenses today, Al-Basha stressed that “Israel’s air capabilities are almost certainly more advanced than those of the Syrian government and Hezbollah.”

While Syria may lack the means to meaningfully retaliate against Israel, the same cannot be said for Iran and its regional proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi in Iraq — groups that collectively make up the “Axis of Resistance.”

On July 9, Hezbollah retaliated for the killing of a bodyguard of its leader Hassan Nasrallah by firing dozens of rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing two people, according to Israeli police. 




A billboard with pictures of late Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi (L) and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad stands on the road leading to Damascus International Airport on May 3, 2023. (AFP)

Earlier that day, the bodyguard’s vehicle had been hit with an Israeli shell in Syrian territory on the Damascus-Beirut highway, Reuters reported.

The killing of senior Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in southern Lebanon on July 3 also did not go unpunished. The following day, the militia said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites.

War-shattered Syria, by contrast, appears to Israel as a soft target.

Syrian-Canadian analyst Camille Alexandre Otrakji told Arab News that by targeting Syria, Israel “strategically targets both the broader resistance camp and Syria specifically.




Syrian fighters from the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) fire a missile against regime positions on May 13, 2019 in the rebel-held northern part of Syria’s Hama province. (AFP)

“Israel is attempting to weaken the overall capabilities of the resistance camp, with Syria being a relatively safe target compared to other regional resistance actors,” he said.

“If Israel targets non-state actors in Lebanon, Yemen, or Iraq, it would likely face retaliatory attacks. Unlike Syria, these actors are not constrained by international agreements, complicating their decision to retaliate against Israel.”

The Baathist regime itself, however, has also long been considered a sworn enemy by Israel.

Pointing out that Syria’s army “has been significantly weakened” by 13 years of civil war, Otrakji said Damascus “faces a more challenging situation,” and “its close allies are not all supportive of a decision to escalate toward military confrontation with Israel.”




An image released on May 10, 2018 reportedly shows Syrian air defense systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Damascus’ airspace. (AFP)

He added: “Syrians legitimately claim that Damascus is the world’s oldest continuously inhabited capital. With comparable validity, they also assert that Syria holds the oldest continuously inhabited position within the resistance axis.

“Since 1947, Syria has frequently opposed Israeli and American initiatives in the Middle East with varying degrees of intensity.

“In a CIA analysis document titled ‘Israel: Perceptions of Syria,’ declassified in 2011 and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, CIA analysts noted that ‘Israelis, both in and out of government, view Syria as Israel’s most determined enemy.’

“The document further states, ‘Most Israelis foresee an extended period of internal unrest in Syria after Assad leaves the scene … the Israelis believe it would weaken Syria’s position in the region and force the successor regime to turn inward.’”




Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad listening to army soldiers in Al-Habit on the southern edges of the Idlib province on October 22, 2019. (AFP)

Otrakji argues that “although Israel cannot deploy its full military might to achieve its long-term goal of creating a power vacuum in Syria, it can pursue this objective gradually.”

He explained that “this slow-paced approach appears to be welcomed by the international community, serving as an additional means to pressure Syria’s leadership into making further compromises.”

While Israel is expected to continue mounting attacks on Syrian territory, Landis of the University of Oklahoma does not foresee Syria becoming the primary battlefield in Israel’s shadow war with Iran.

“Syria will not be the main battlefield, but Israel will strike any arms depots or manufacturing sites in Syria that may resupply Hezbollah,” he said.

“If Iran tries to reinforce Hezbollah through Syria, Israel will be sure to attack Syria in an effort to stop arms from reaching Lebanon.”

 


Two British MPs detained by Israel, British foreign minister says

British Foreign Minister David Lammy speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on August 15, 2024. (AFP file photo)
British Foreign Minister David Lammy speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on August 15, 2024. (AFP file photo)
Updated 16 sec ago
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Two British MPs detained by Israel, British foreign minister says

British Foreign Minister David Lammy speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on August 15, 2024. (AFP file photo)

JERUSALEM: Israel has detained two British members of parliament visiting the country as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement on Saturday.
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Lammy said.
 

 


Tunisia shuts down large migrant camps

Tunisia shuts down large migrant camps
Updated 05 April 2025
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Tunisia shuts down large migrant camps

Tunisia shuts down large migrant camps
  • The camps had prompted anger from residents in nearby villages, raising pressure on the authorities

EI AMRA, Tunisia: Tunisia has dismantled camps housing thousands of undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, police said, following a campaign against them on social media.

Around 20,000 migrants had set up tents in fields in the eastern regions of El-Amra and Jebeniana, said national guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli.

He said around 4,000 people of various nationalities had left one of the camps cleared by authorities, and operations would continue over the coming days.

Some of the migrants had “dispersed into the countryside,” with pregnant women and the infirm taken care of by the health authorities, he added.

The camps had prompted anger from residents in nearby villages, raising pressure on the authorities.

Jebabli said locals had taken legal action over the occupation of their olive groves by the migrants.

“It was our duty to end all the disorder,” he said.

Tunisian President Kais Saied on March 25 called on the International Organization for Migration to accelerate voluntary returns for irregular migrants to their home countries.

In recent years, Tunisia has become a key departure point in North Africa for migrants crossing the perilous Mediterranean Sea in hopes of reaching Europe.

Italy has agreements with Tunisia and Libya to provide funding in exchange for help stemming departures.

Italy plans to invest €20 million ($22 million) in a new project to help Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia send irregular migrants from their territories back to the migrants’ countries of origin.

The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to cut irregular migration to Italy’s shores from North Africa — the majority of whom depart from Libya and Tunisia.

But many of the migrants who depart hail from other countries, especially sub-Saharan African countries.

Italy’s new plan “focuses on strengthening the institutional and administrative-managerial capacities of the partner countries,” with the involvement of 400 officials, Italy’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a recent statement.

Irregular migration would be better addressed “through the improvement and development of assisted voluntary repatriations from Algeria, Libya and Tunisia to the countries of origin,” it said.

It said the project would collaborate with the IOM to ensure migrants’ rights.

The ministry said the plan would benefit “around 3,300 of the most vulnerable migrants, carrying out their repatriation to their countries of origin sustainably and effectively.”

It said Italy’s Agency for Development Cooperation, which helps carry out development activities, would provide technical support.

The agency has also been charged with another plan targeted at the “socio-economic reintegration of returning migrants,” tapping Italian companies and civil society groups, it said.

On Wednesday, Libyan authorities said they would suspend the work of 10 international humanitarian groups, including Doctors Without Borders, accusing them of a plan to “settle migrants” from other parts of Africa in the country.


Israeli general condemns West Bank settler riot, ‘vandalism’ by troops

Israeli general condemns West Bank settler riot, ‘vandalism’ by troops
Updated 05 April 2025
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Israeli general condemns West Bank settler riot, ‘vandalism’ by troops

Israeli general condemns West Bank settler riot, ‘vandalism’ by troops
  • Major General Avi Bluth addressed a “series of unusual incidents” while visiting Israeli police officers in the West Bank
  • Bluth “emphasized that these are exceptional incidents that must be addressed with the necessary severity“

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli military’s top commander in the occupied West Bank condemned recent violence by Israeli settlers against police and “unacceptable” conduct by soldiers, in a video shared by the army on Friday.
A military statement said that Major General Avi Bluth addressed a “series of unusual incidents” while visiting Israeli police officers in the West Bank, near the site of a riot involving settlers earlier this week.
Israeli police said they had arrested 17 suspects over the “violent riot” on Wednesday near the settlement outpost of Givat Habaladim, northeast of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, during which Israeli settlers threw stones at officers and torched a police car.
Bluth “emphasized that these are exceptional incidents that must be addressed with the necessary severity,” the military statement said.
Referring to the settlers’ attack on Israeli forces, Bluth said in the video: “Beyond the fact that this is a red line that has been crossed and will be dealt with seriously, there is no greater act of ingratitude.”
Rights groups often accuse the army of protecting Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the United Nations has said that settler attacks against Palestinians are taking place in a climate of “impunity.”
In a recent incident Bluth did not address in the video, the army said that this week “dozens of Israeli civilians... set fire to property” in the Palestinian village of Duma, injuring several people.
The Israeli general mentioned “vandalism and graffiti” by reserve soldiers during a military raid on Wednesday, in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem.
While a major offensive since January has focused on refugee camps in the northern West Bank, Dheisheh in the south has seen an uptick in Israeli army raids in recent weeks.
Images shared on social media showed vandalized apartments, where furniture was broken and Israeli nationalist slogans spray painted on walls.
Bluth said that “the conduct in Dheisheh by our reserve soldiers is not what we stand for.”
“Vandalism and graffiti during an operational mission are, from our perspective, unacceptable incidents. It is inconceivable that IDF (army) soldiers do not act according to their commanders’ orders,” he said.
Since war began in October 2023 in the Gaza Strip — a separate Palestinian territory — violence has soared in the West Bank.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 917 Palestinians, including militants, in the West Bank since October 2023, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since 1967.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, around 490,000 Israelis live there in settlements and outposts that are illegal under international law. Outposts are also illegal under Israeli law.


Macron to hold Gaza summit with Egyptian, Jordanian leaders

Macron to hold Gaza summit with Egyptian, Jordanian leaders
Updated 05 April 2025
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Macron to hold Gaza summit with Egyptian, Jordanian leaders

Macron to hold Gaza summit with Egyptian, Jordanian leaders
  • The French president is expected in Cairo on Sunday evening
  • The trilateral summit will be held the same day

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said he would hold a trilateral summit on the situation in Gaza with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Israel has pushed to seize territory in Gaza since the collapse of a short-lived truce in its war with Hamas, in what it has called a strategy to force the militants to free hostages still in captivity.
Simultaneously, Israel has escalated attacks on Lebanon and Syria.
“In response to the Gaza emergency and during my visit to Egypt at President El-Sisi’s invitation, we will hold a trilateral summit with the Egyptian president and the King of Jordan,” Macron wrote on X ahead of his trip.
The French president is expected in Cairo on Sunday evening, where he will hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart on Monday morning.
The trilateral summit will be held the same day in the Egyptian capital, according to Macron’s office.
On Tuesday, Macron will also visit the Egyptian port of El-Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, to meet humanitarian and security workers and demonstrate his “constant mobilization in favor of a ceasefire.”
El-Arish is a transit point for international aid intended for Gaza.


Libya’s anti-NGO push seen as diversion from internal failures, analysts say

Libya’s anti-NGO push seen as diversion from internal failures, analysts say
Updated 05 April 2025
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Libya’s anti-NGO push seen as diversion from internal failures, analysts say

Libya’s anti-NGO push seen as diversion from internal failures, analysts say
  • Anas Al-Gomati, director of the Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute think tank, said “this isn’t about NGOs — it’s about creating enemies to distract from failures“
  • Libya analyst Jalel Harchaoui noted that the Tripoli government is adopting a similar tone to Tunisian President Kais Saied

TUNIS: Libya’s suspension of 10 international humanitarian groups, part of a broader crackdown on African migrants, is aimed at masking domestic failures and securing external concessions, particularly from Europe, analysts have said.
Libya’s Tripoli-based authorities announced on Wednesday a decision to suspend the Norwegian Refugee Council, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Terre des Hommes, CESVI and six other groups, accusing them of a plan to “settle migrants” from other parts of Africa in the country.
War-torn Libya is a key departure point on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast for migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan African countries, risking dangerous sea voyages in the hope of reaching Europe.
Anas Al-Gomati, director of the Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute think tank, said “this isn’t about NGOs — it’s about creating enemies to distract from failures.”
The UN-recognized government of Abdulhamid Dbeibah is “tapping into conservative anxieties while masking their inability to provide basic services,” he told AFP.
Libya has struggled to recover from the chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
It remains split between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival authority in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The ultimate goal, according to Gomati, is to “extract concessions from Europe which, fearing potential migration surges, will offer new funding packages and prop up the government in Tripoli.”
On Wednesday, Rome announced the allocation of 20 million euros to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to finance “voluntary repatriations” for 3,300 sub-Saharan migrants who arrived in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
“This isn’t coincidence — its coordination. The Libyan authorities shut down NGOs providing monitoring and protection (for migrants) precisely as Italy announces 20 million euros for ‘voluntary’ returns,” said Gomati.
“Italy gets to claim they’re funding ‘voluntary’ returns while Libya gets to demonstrate ‘sovereignty’, all while vulnerable migrants face extortion in detention before being labelled ‘volunteers’ for deportation.”
Libya analyst Jalel Harchaoui noted that the Tripoli government is adopting a similar tone to Tunisian President Kais Saied, who in early 2023 denounced what he called “hordes of sub-Saharan migrants” who threatened to “change the country’s demographic composition.”
Harchaoui, of the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said Dbeibah was facing considerable difficulties, particularly in gaining access to public funds, and his once pragmatic relationship with the Haftar family in the east had deteriorated.
The two rivals had previously struck a kind of non-aggression pact in exchange for sharing oil revenues.
“In its bid to assert control and project strength, the Dbeibah government has turned to demonizing sub-Saharan migrants and denouncing NGOs,” Harchaoui said.
This aims to “show who’s in charge in Tripoli and create the illusion that he is curbing migration flows.”
Exiled Libyan human rights activist Husam el-Gomati said on X that “this crackdown appears not only to limit the influence of these organizations but also to prevent the documentation of human rights violations and delay any potential punitive measures against militia leaders involved in these abuses.”
Various reports from the United Nations and NGOs such as Amnesty International have denounced the arbitrary detentions of government opponents, journalists and lawyers in recent months, as well as abuses against migrants, including the discovery of mass graves.
Following the NGO ban, aid groups have expressed concern for both their Libyan colleagues and the migrants who have been made more vulnerable in a country that, according to the IOM, is home to more than 700,000 residents from sub-Saharan countries.
The International Commission of Jurists on Friday condemned the “recent collective expulsions, arrests, violent attacks and the surge of hate speech, including that which constitutes incitement to violence, against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Libya.”
The organization noted that the Libyan interior ministry has pledged “the deportation of 100,000 migrants every four months.”