Israel causes a minimum of 41 deaths in one of many deadliest bombings in Syria for the reason that begin of the warfare in Gaza | International | EUROtoday

An Israeli bombing in Syria this Wednesday brought on an virtually unprecedented variety of victims for the reason that begin of the warfare in Gaza, in October 2023: 41 lifeless (a minimum of 22 of them foreigners) and 50 injured, in line with the Syrian Observatory for Rights Humans, with informants on the bottom. The state information company, Sana, which cites the Ministry of Defense of the Arab nation, places the demise toll at 36. The airstrike, which hit a number of buildings within the metropolis of Palmyra, additional highlights the Israeli growth of its assaults in Syria (virtually changing into day by day) to stop the arrival of weapons to Hezbollah and make sure that the Bashar regime Assad will proceed to restrict himself to responding with rhetorical statements of condemnation. Damascus normally, actually, reduces or hides its losses in one of these assaults directed towards Hezbollah, Iranian forces and different armed teams near Tehran. Israeli aviation has been carrying them out for years, however has elevated them considerably for the reason that escalation within the area a bit over a yr in the past after the Hamas assault on Israeli soil and, above all, in current weeks, in parallel to the open warfare. that Israel has launched in neighboring Lebanon.

The Observatory cites among the many bombing targets a warehouse within the industrial zone (inhabited by households of overseas fighters aligned with Iran), a restaurant and different buildings. There are, he provides, civilians among the many wounded. Palmyra, situated northeast of Damascus, taken by the Islamic State in 2015 and recovered by regime troops virtually a yr later, is dwelling to ruins declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today’s Israeli Defense Minister, Gideon Saar, advocated in September to “make it clear to Assad that if he chooses to harm Israel’s security […] puts his regime in danger,” and regretted that he “lost the opportunity” to overthrow him in the course of the warfare earlier than Iran and Hezbollah got here to “save” him.

Assad, extra involved about his survival than about returning to Iran and Hezbollah – now in hassle – the assistance they gave him a decade in the past (when his future within the warfare regarded a lot darker), has taken a stand towards the Israeli assaults. , though they’re of their territory they usually have additionally killed dozens of troopers. He appears extra serious about strengthening his alliance with Russia – whose entry on the scene in 2015 was the actual turnaround in his favor on the fight entrance – and in deepening his rapprochement with the Gulf nations (with cash for the destroyed Syrian economic system). Also of their rehabilitation earlier than the West, profiting from the truth that the eventual return of Syrian refugees sounds superb within the ears of these European nations with Governments hostile to the presence of foreigners, particularly Muslims.

On the one hand, the Syrian chief can’t, for the second, fully do away with the alliance with Tehran, as a result of it supplies it with funds and a minimum of a 3rd of its gas. On the opposite hand, it’s stopping the border with Israel from brazenly changing into an assault entrance. Both he and Moscow are, moreover, successfully giving Israel carte blanche for Israeli bombings towards the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah. Assad additionally didn’t be a part of Tehran’s technique referred to as “unity of the fronts” within the face of the invasion of Gaza, even repressing protests within the Palestinian refugee camps. He doesn’t forgive Hamas for aligning itself with the rebels initially of the warfare, which led to the expulsion of the militia leaders from Syria.

Smuggling routes

It is on this context that the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu has got down to weaken Iran and its allies, wherever they’re, systematically punishing the routes for the supply of weapons to the Lebanese militia by way of Syria, in addition to killing militiamen and who facilitate them. Last week, the Israeli military introduced in an announcement that it had bombed weapons “smuggling routes” in Syria. A army supply cited by the Syrian state company acknowledged “significant damage” that left some infrastructure, equivalent to bridges and roads, unusable.

It has additionally finished so on the opposite facet of the border, with roads in Lebanon resulting in the border with Syria. They are the identical ones that tons of of 1000’s of civilians (each Syrian and Lebanese refugees) have been utilizing since September to flee the bombings, in increasingly more components of the nation. Their journey now, loaded with belongings, is much more tough.

The Observatory counts 152 Israeli assaults in Syria up to now this yr. They have killed 303 combatants and 62 civilians. The breakdown is illustrative: 25 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, 55 from Hezbollah and 88 Syrians from pro-Iran militias. The relaxation are primarily militiamen of different nationalities (equivalent to Iraqis) and troopers of the Syrian military.

Since September, assaults have been an virtually day by day actuality and embrace the capital, Damascus, and Quseir, a city a couple of kilometers from the Lebanese border thought-about a Hezbollah fiefdom. In the primary 10 days of November alone, there have been eight in 4 completely different areas, together with crossings with Lebanon, each official and unofficial, in line with the Observatory.

Added to that is a rare floor incursion by its elite forces to destroy an underground precision missile manufacturing unit, in line with the American media Axios. It is an instance of the penetration that their intelligence providers have achieved, additionally palpable within the coordinated assaults on 1000’s of serps and walkie-talkies commissioned by Hezbollah or within the assassinations of its chief, Hasan Nasrallah, and that of Hamas, Ismail Haniye, within the coronary heart of the Iranian capital.