Israeli forces raided a former air defence base in southern Syria on Wednesday during a series of airstrikes in the area – their farthermost such operation inside Syria since Bashar al-Assad was ousted last December.
The site, near the city of al-Kiswah, about 6 miles (10km) south of Damascus, was a strategic base for Iranian militias during Assad’s rule.
Syrian state media reported that the Israeli military had carried out strikes in the same area a day earlier, killing six Syrian troops who had found Israeli listening and spying devices there. The troops were in the process of dismantling the devices when they were killed, state media said.
Israeli warplanes and drones prevented Syrian forces from entering the area until late on Wednesday night, after Israeli forces had left the site. A Syrian military source told Al Jazeera that dozens of Israeli troops travelled to the site in four helicopters and spent more than two hours there, though it is unclear what exactly they did.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, posted on X that forces were “operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel”, but otherwise offered no explanation.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of international law and a breach of the country’s sovereignty.
Israel carried out dozens of strikes on weapons depots and military bases after the ousting of Assad in December. It also pushed into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated the two countries and established military bases there.
Israel has warned the new Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former leader of Islamist rebel groups, that it will not allow it to deploy forces to southern Syria.
Israeli strikes on Syria had all but stopped after Donald Trump warned Israel to “be reasonable” in Syria, until sectarian clashes broke out in Druze-majority areas in southern Syria in June. Israel struck the defence ministry in Damascus and bombed Syrian troops in what it said was an effort to protect Syria’s Druze population.
Wednesday’s bombings came despite high-level security talks taking place between Syrian and Israeli officials. Officials from both countries met in Paris alongside the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, earlier this month.
The Paris talks, in addition to meetings in Azerbaijan, are aimed at establishing a security agreement between the two countries that would stop Israeli aggression in Syria and provide security assurances to Israel. Israel has also requested that the rights of the Druze in Syria be respected.
On Thursday night, Benjamin Netanyahu said talks about the demilitarisation of southern Syria were in progress, implicitly acknowledging contact with the new Syrian regime for the first time.
In a video released by his office, Israel’s prime minister said: “We are focusing on three things: protecting the Druze community in the Sweida governorate, but not only there; creating a demilitarised zone stretching from the Golan Heights, [passing] south of Damascus, down to and including Sweida; and establishing a humanitarian corridor to allow the delivery of aid. These discussions are taking place right now, at this very moment.”
Israeli leaders have repeatedly referred to the new government in Damascus as jihadist and have expressed concerns that it could pose a threat to Israelis living close to their shared border. The new government in Syria has not attacked Israel and said it wanted regional peace, including with Israel.
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948 and do not have diplomatic relations. In 1974, the two countries signed a UN agreement that created a buffer zone between them.
Israel said it considered the 1974 agreement as void once Assad had been toppled, and pushed past the buffer zone. Syrian officials have said they want to use the 1974 agreement as a starting point in negotiations.
The US, which is mediating talks between Syria and Israel, has said it hopes the two countries could in time normalise relations and join the Abraham accords. Syrian officials have said this is a possibility but emphasised that current talks are solely focused on security issues.
Barrack has cautioned that reaching a security agreement will take time, saying in an interview with the US news website Axios that the two countries “have mutual intent and desire but at the moment there is still more work to do”.
