Syrian and Israeli media report air attacks on southern Deraa province targeting military sites of former Bashar al-Assad regime.
Israeli military aircraft have carried out attacks in Syria’s southern province of Deraa, according to media reports and a monitoring group, in the latest attacks targeting military positions of the former Bashar al-Assad regime.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said the attacks on Monday night hit two towns in the north of Deraa, which is located 103km (64 miles) south of the capital Damascus.
“Israeli occupation aircraft carried out several strikes on the surroundings of the towns of Jbab and Izraa in the north of Deraa,” SANA reported.
The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 17 strikes by Israeli fighter jets hit two military positions located in the towns: the former regime’s Artillery Regiment 89 and the 12th Brigade.
No casualties have been reported so far, the observatory said.
Israeli media outlet Channel 14 said the air attacks targeted al-Assad regime army outposts, weapons depots, radars, tanks and artillery that rebel groups in Syria were “trying to take over”.
Since the overthrow of Syrian President al-Assad in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory, Israel’s military carried out more than 500 air attacks on targets in Syria between December 8 and December 31, 2024, and has carried out 21 documented attacks so far this year.
Most Israeli attacks have targeted facilities and weapons once held by the toppled regime’s forces in what Israel has said is a bid to prevent military assets from falling into the hands of forces hostile to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning also that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new government in Damascus, headed by Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, near Israeli territory.
Since the removal of al-Assad, Israel’s military has entered and taken control of territory inside a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israel and Syria in the occupied Golan Heights since 1974.