Israel launches strikes across Syria as troops seize more territory

Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, drawing to within 15 miles of the capital.

Heavy airstrikes were heard in the capital Damascus overnight and into Tuesday on the city and its suburbs.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Israel’s military destroyed Syria’s fleet overnight and intends to establish a demilitarised zone “in southern Syria” to prevent attacks on Israel.

He also issued a warning to Syria’s rebels, saying that “whoever follows Assad’s path will end up like Assad — we will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel across its border while putting its citizens at risk”.

Smoke billows from a Syrian naval ship destroyed in an overnight Israeli attack on the port city of Latakia | AFP via Getty Images

Speaking at a naval base in Haifa, Mr Katz said the Israeli navy “operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet and with great success”.

Video showing the smoking wreckage of what appeared to be small Syrian naval ships in the port at Latakia was broadcast by Saudi-owned television station Al-Hadath on Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has closely tracked the conflict since the civil war erupted in 2011, said Israel targeted Syrian warships, military warehouses and an air-defence facility on the coast.

Mr Katz added that he had instructed the army to establish a “defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, in order to prevent terrorism in Syria from taking root and organising”.

It was unclear if the demilitarised zone would reach beyond the buffer zone that Israel has taken over in the border area.

Israel has a long history of seizing territory during wars with its neighbours and occupying it indefinitely, citing security concerns.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally, except by the United States.

Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and war planes across the region.

There was no immediate comment from the insurgent groups – led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – that have taken control of Damascus.

Israel had earlier seized a roughly 155-square-mile buffer zone inside Syria that had been established after the 1973 war, a move it said was taken to prevent attacks in the aftermath of the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Israel has also said it is striking suspected chemical weapons sites and heavy weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israeli officials rarely acknowledge individual strikes.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel has carried out more than 300 airstrikes across the country since rebels overthrew Assad over the weekend, ending his family’s half-century rule.

The observatory, and Beirut-based Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria, said Israeli troops are advancing up the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon.

An Israeli military official said troops plan to seize a buffer zone inside Syria as well as “a few more points that have strategic meaning”, without elaborating.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed reports of a larger Israeli invasion as “rumours”.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law.

“The assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia has been in talks with the US in recent years over normalising relations with Israel in exchange for a US defence pact, American assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear programme and a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But the kingdom has also repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, where it is at war with the Hamas militant group.

Last month, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and day-to-day ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, allegations Israel adamantly rejects.

Thousands of people continue to flock from all over Syria to Saydnaya prison outside Damascus in the hope of finding loved ones arrested by Assad's regime.

All have been looking for signs of relatives who disappeared years or even decades ago into the secretive, sprawling prison known as "the Slaughterhouse".

But hope gave way to despair on Monday. People opened the heavy iron doors lining the hallways to find cells inside empty. With sledgehammers, shovels and drills, men pounded holes in floors and walls, looking for what they believed were secret dungeons, or chasing sounds they thought they heard from underground. They found nothing.

Insurgents freed dozens of people from the Saydnaya military prison on Sunday when Damascus fell. Since then, almost no one has been found.

"Where is everyone? Where are everyone's children? Where are they?" said Ghada Assad , breaking down in tears.

She had rushed from her Damascus home to the prison on the capital's outskirts, hoping to find her brother. He was detained in 2011, the year that protests first erupted against the former president's rule - before they turned into a long, gruelling civil war. She did not know why he was arrested.

"My heart has been burned over my brother. For 13 years, I kept looking for him," she said. When insurgents last week seized Aleppo - her original hometown - at the start of their swiftly victorious offensive, "I prayed that they would reach Damascus just so they can open up this prison," she said.

In 2017, Amnesty International estimated that 10,000-20,000 people were being held there at the time "from every sector of society." It said they were effectively slated for "extermination".

Thousands were killed in frequent mass executions, Amnesty reported, citing testimony from freed prisoners and prison officials.

Prisoners were subjected to constant torture, intense beatings and rape.

Almost daily, guards did rounds of the cells to collect bodies of inmates who had died overnight from injuries, disease or starvation. Some inmates fell into psychosis and starved themselves, the human rights group said.

Even before the latest escalation, nearly 17 million people in Syria needed humanitarian assistance. More than one million have been displaced across Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Homs since the escalation.

Members of the Syrian government under ousted Assad will gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet headed by Mohammed al-Bashir .

The departing government met Mr al-Bashir for the first time since Assad fled Damascus over the weekend. Mr al-Bashir had previously led the "salvation government" running the rebel stronghold in northwest Syria .

Mr al-Bashir told reporters after the meeting that the ministers discussed transferring the portfolios to the interim government during the transitional period until the beginning of March.

He said that in the coming days the new government will decide on each ministry.