Syria has strongly condemned a fresh wave of Israeli strikes on airbases and other military sites overnight as an "unjustified escalation". The foreign ministry said the attacks almost destroyed Hama airbase and injured dozens of people. A monitoring group reported that four defense ministry personnel were killed. Israel's military said it hit "capabilities that remained" at the western Hama and central T4 airbases, along with military infrastructure in Damascus. It also said Israeli forces killed gunmen during a ground operation in Deraa province, where authorities put the death toll at nine. It came amid reports that Turkey was moving to station jets and air defences at Syrian airbases. Israel's defence minister warned Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday that he would "pay a very heavy price" if he allowed "forces hostile to Israel" to enter the country. The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy military assets - including jets, tanks, missiles, air defence systems, weapons factories and research centres - since former president Bashar al-Assad's regime was overthrown by rebel forces in December after 13 years of civil war. The rebels were led by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK. Israel has also sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon. And it has demanded the complete demilitarisation of the three neighboring southern provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Suweida, saying it would not accept the presence of the forces of Sharaa's government there. The Syrian foreign ministry said Wednesday night's air strikes targeted "five locations across the country within 30 minutes, resulting in the near-total destruction of Hama Military Airport and injuring dozens of civilians and military personnel". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there were at least 18 strikes that targeted planes, rail tracks and towers at Hama airbase. Israel also hit T4 airbase, which is near Palmyra, and a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) in the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus, it added. "This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilize Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people," the Syrian foreign ministry said. It called the strikes "a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty", and urged the international community to "exert pressure on Israel to cease its aggression". Syria may have been the location for these strikes, but the real target was Turkey. Israel has been nervously eyeing a joint defense pact Turkey is negotiating with Syria's transitional government, and these latest air strikes come amid Turkish reports of military equipment being moved to Syrian airbases, including T4. In a statement on Thursday morning, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz warned President Sharaa: "If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests — you will pay a very heavy price." "Yesterday's air force activity... is a clear message and a warning to the future - we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed." Katz did not elaborate on what forces he considered "hostile", but foreign minister Gideon Saar separately said that Israel was concerned at the "negative role" that Turkey was playing in Syria. "They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It's clear that is their intention," he told a news conference in Paris. The SOHR also reported that Israeli ground forces shelled a national park west of the southern city of Deraa on Wednesday night, killing nine gunmen who attempted to confront them. Prior to the shelling, dozens of Israeli military vehicles had entered the al-Jabaliya Dam area near Nawa and taken up positions there, prompting "calls from the mosques in the area [to wage] jihad against the Israeli incursion", it added. Deraa province's government warned that the "massacre" of nine people had sparked widespread public anger. It has not so far identified those killed. The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had operated in Deraa overnight, "seizing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure". "Several armed men fired at our forces in the area. The forces responded with gunfire and eliminated several armed militants from the ground and air," it added. The military said it would "not allow a military threat to exist in Syria". However, Turkey's growing investment in Syria is seen by Israel as another level of threat. The risk of regional confrontation is growing, and with it the risk of Syria once again becoming host to the conflicts of outside powers. — BBC
