After rebel takeover, Israeli Air Force and Navy strike missile depots, naval vessels, fighter jets and more to ensure they don’t fall into wrong hands
Following a major 48-hour bombing campaign in Syria, the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said it had destroyed most of the former Bashar al-Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities, in an effort to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements.
In a statement, the IDF said that its Air Force and Navy had carried out over 350 strikes against “strategic targets” in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime over the weekend, taking out “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria.”
The military estimated that it had destroyed 70-80 percent of the former Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities.
The operation was dubbed “Bashan Arrow” within the military, after the biblical name for the Golan Heights and southern Syria region.
The IDF released footage from the campaign, during which it said over 320 targets were struck across all of Syria.
The strikes began late Saturday, first taking out Syrian air defenses to give the Israeli Air Force more freedom.
Wave after wave of airstrikes carried out by IAF fighter jets and drones then hit Syrian airbases, weapon depots and weapon production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, according to the military.
The military said the airstrikes destroyed many long-range projectiles, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, air defense missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars and more.
The IAF also targeted several chemical weapons sites in Syria during the waves of strikes, Israeli officials have said.
Meanwhile, on Monday night, Israeli Navy missile boats destroyed 15 naval vessels belonging to the former regime at the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast, the military said.
The Assad regime, which fell on Sunday after a lightning offensive by rebel forces, was an ally of the Iranian regime, and a part of its so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel.
For many years, Syria was used as a throughway for Iranian weapons, en route to terror groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, with which Israel entered a shaky ceasefire last month.
Israel feared that following the collapse of the Assad regime, the former Syrian army’s weapons could fall into the hands of hostile forces in the country, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In a message to the new regime taking shape in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel would seek to establish relations, but wouldn’t hesitate to attack if it threatens the Jewish state.
“We have no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Syria,” he said in a video statement, “but we certainly do intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security.”
Hence, he said, the Israeli Air Force was bombing “military strategic capabilities” left by the Syrian Army of the ousted Assad regime, “so that they won’t fall into the hands of the jihadists.”
“We want correct relations with the new regime in Syria,” he went on. “But if this regime allows Iran to reestablish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or attacks us, we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price from it.”
“What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this regime,” he warned.
Defense Minister Israel Katz also issued a warning to Syria’s rebels, saying that any entity that poses a threat to Israel will be targeted relentlessly.
“The IDF has acted in the last few days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel,” he said, during a tour of the Haifa Naval Base during which he was briefed on the Navy strikes on the Assad regime naval assets.
He warned the rebels that “whoever follows Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad did. We won’t allow an extremist Islamic terror entity to act against Israel from beyond its borders… we will do anything to remove the threat.”
Katz reiterated that the IDF is creating a demilitarized area, and said he has ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.
The Israeli operations in Syria came in the wake of a lightning offensive by rebel forces there, which on Sunday toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad in a dramatic two-week chapter of a civil war that began in 2011, and which had been locked in a stalemate for years.
Following the regime’s fall, Israel moved to destroy regime weapons sites before they could fall into the hands of forces hostile to the country, amid the chaotic takeover by rebel groups, many of which were originally associated with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
At the same time, Israel denied reports that its ground forces had gone beyond a buffer zone in the Golan Heights that the IDF seized on Sunday and stressed that its control of that area was a temporary, defensive measure.
“Reports circulating in some media outlets claiming that IDF troops are advancing or approaching Damascus are completely incorrect,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, wrote on X.
“IDF troops are present inside the buffer zone and at defensive positions close to the border in order to protect the Israeli border,” he added.
The comment came after Reuters, citing two regional security sources and one Syrian security source, claimed that troops reached “Qatana.” It was unclear whether the report was referring to the Qatana district, parts of which abut the buffer zone, or the town of Qatana, which is around 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Damascus and east of the buffer zone.
Israel has said it will not become involved in the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 was a defensive move.
Israel said its airstrikes would carry on for days, but told the UN Security Council that it was not intervening in Syria’s conflict. It said it had taken “limited and temporary measures” solely to protect its security.