The Israeli military has reported targeting most strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria over the past 48 hours, with Israeli naval missile ships striking two Syrian naval facilities. Israel said its attack was aimed at preventing weapons from the ousted Assad government from falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, noted that Israel had carried out more than 300 airstrikes in Syria since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
Earlier, Israeli forces destroyed a Syrian military fleet in an operation on Monday night, as part of a wider campaign to neutralize strategic threats to the country, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Tuesday during a visit to a naval base in Haifa.
“The IDF has been actively operating in Syria in recent days to target and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel. The Navy successfully destroyed a Syrian ship last night,” Katz said.
reported by in a separate statement ReutersKatz noted that the Israeli military is strengthening its presence in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. He ordered the creation of a “sterile protective zone” in southern Syria to prevent terrorist threats, stressing that it would not include a permanent Israeli presence.
The buffer zone between Syria and the Golan Heights was demilitarized after the Yom Kippur War, which began in 1974 after Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel. UN peacekeepers have been patrolling the demilitarized buffer zone since 1974.
Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Tuesday that Israeli troops are stationed “at a few more points” in and near the buffer zone. This marked the first clear official recognition by Israel that its forces had moved beyond the buffer zone.