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Israel is once again escalating against Syria, ignoring the country’s struggle to recover from the devastating February 6 earthquake.
On February 19, Israel launched a large-scale attack against Syria. The attack, which was carried out by four F-16 fighter jets of the Israeli Air Force, targeted a multi-story building in the highly-secured Kafar Sousah neighborhood in Damascus and several military positions around the capital. One of the positions was reportedly a radar site near the village of Tall al-Masyah in the northeastern countryside of the neighboring al-Suwayda governorate.
The strikes claimed the lives of five, a Syrian military engineer and four civilians, and left at least 15 others wounded. Most of the casualties fell at the Kafar Sousah building. According to unconfirmed reports, Syrian and Iranian officials were meeting in the building, which is said to be a cultural center, to advance programmes to develop drones or missiles.
Less than a week after the attack, on February 24, Hezbollah mourned one of its fighters. The Lebanese group said that Ali Yahya al-Zein, also known as Karbala, ” martyred” while carrying out “his jihadi duty.” Several Syrian and Lebanese sources reported that the fighter was killed in the attack on Damascus. However, this was denied by activists close to Hezbollah.
The deadly attack on Syria came nine days after a drone attack on an Israeli-owned oil tanker in the Arabian Sea and just a day after a rocket attack that targeted a base of the United States in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor. Iran was unofficially blamed for both attacks. It is unclear however if they were related.
In an apparent response to the strikes, the Iranian state television reported on February 24 that Tehran will likely sell air defense systems to Syria to boost its defenses in the face of frequent Israeli attacks. According to the report, the 15 Khordad system, which can hit aerial targets 150 kilometers away, could be supplied to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA)
The indirect Iranian threat didn’t stop Israel. On February 28, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) warned the SAA against allowing Hezbollah to establish a presence on the strategic Tell al-Hara hilltop in leaflets which were dropped over the southern governorates of Daraa and al-Qunitra. Tell al-Hara, which is located in the western Daraa countryside, hosts a former Syrian-Russian signal intelligence base.
The Israeli escalation against Syria will likely continue in the coming weeks and months. Damascus and its allies could respond by directly attacking Israel, or indirectly by boosting Syrian air defenses. Nevertheless, both options will likely lead to a limited military confrontation with the IDF.
