What's behind Israel's successive strikes against Syria?

Not a long time has passed since an American missile strike hit an airbase in Syria, but it seems that the situation on the ground in the war-torn country is still changing. In one of the latest developments regarding Syria, it is reported that the Israeli military has for the second time in just three days hit targets in south of Syria.

کد خبر: ۶۸۷۶۲۳

تاریخ: ۰۳ ارديبهشت ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۵:۵۸

Tabnak – Not a long time has passed since an American missile strike hit an airbase in Syria, but it seems that the situation on the ground in the war-torn country is still changing. In one of the latest developments regarding Syria, it is reported that the Israeli military has for the second time in just three days hit targets in south of Syria.

Reuters cited local sources earlier today that reporting that an Israeli attack against a military base for the Syrian pro-government National Defense Forces in southern Syria killed three NDF members.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said it remained unclear if the source of the bombardment in Quneitra province was an air strike or shelling.

The NDF said the attack struck its military camp in the countryside of Quneitra, which sits near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory that Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.

Rebel forces and other armed groups battling the Syrian government and its allies control much of the Quneitra area. This is while, according to Aljazeera, the Israeli army said on Friday that it had targeted positions inside Syria in retaliation for mortar fire that hit the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights.

The IDF had said that a projectile was launched from the Syrian territory and fell on the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights, causing no injuries. The Israeli military did not specify whether or not the shelling from the Syrian territory was deliberate or there was an accidental overflight of a projectile or mines through a dividing line. The troops have been searching the area.

Since violence in Syria began in 2011 and devolved into civil war, Israel has been accused of carrying out occasional strikes targeting weapons convoys destined for Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military acts to limit the transfer of "game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

Israel claims that Hezbollah and Iran, which are supporting the Syrian government and the Syrian army, are growing stronger as Assad gains the upper hand in the fighting and this is a cause for Israel’s concern. Netanyahu discussed Iran and Syria on Friday during a visit to the region by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis. So, it is possible that the US has technically granted him a green light to conduct such strikes against the Syrian government’s positions.

It should be noted that Israel occupied 1,200sq km of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community. About 510sq km of the Golan are under Syrian control. The two countries are still technically at war, although the border remained largely quiet for decades until 2011, when the Syrian conflict broke out.