Israel’s defence minister says the country aims to establish a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria after Israeli forces seized territory and unleashed a wave of air strikes on the country following the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli troops in recent days have moved into the demilitarised zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.
Defence Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said he ordered Israel’s forces to create a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent Israeli presence.
Katz did not elaborate but said the zone would “prevent the establishment and organisation of terror in Syria”.
Separately, the Israeli army said that it conducted about 480 attacks over the past 48 hours on key military targets amid a security vacuum after the overthrowing of al-Assad.
It said it struck “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria, preventing them from falling into the hands of terrorist elements”, adding that the targets included 15 naval vessels, anti-aircraft batteries and weapons production sites in several cities.
In and around the capital, Damascus, strikes have targeted military installations, research centres and the electronic warfare administration.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor, said Israel had “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria, including Syrian airports and their warehouses, aircraft squadrons, radars, military signal stations, and many weapons and ammunition depots in various locations in most Syrian governorates”.
Israel media, quoting a senior security source, described the attacks as the largest air operation carried out by its air force in its history.
A spokesperson for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said the world body was “against these types of attacks”.
“I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
‘Free-for-all’
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar described the Israeli attacks as “systematic”. “They are aiming to destroy Syria’s defence bases,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Mohammed al-Bashir, who was appointed as the country’s caretaker prime minister on Tuesday by the Syrian fighters who toppled al-Assad.
Analyst Aron Lund said Israel has been attacking targets linked to al-Assad backers Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah in Syria for several years but the sudden marginalisation of the former ruler’s other backer, Russia, enabled it to hit military sites in the country with no restrictions.
Prior to the Syrian government’s collapse, “Israel operated under rules set in negotiations with Moscow, which appear to have included a promise not to seriously destabilise al-Assad’s rule,” said Lund, who is a fellow with Century International and a Middle East analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.
“Now, Russia is no longer constraining Israeli action,” he added, describing the situation as “a free-for-all in Syria – and Israel is taking full advantage of it.”
He added: “The international community doesn’t seem to care, although I think at some point there will be more criticism, especially if Israeli troops move deeper into the areas south of Damascus.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US Muslim group, blasted the US government for its continued support to Israel despite its escalating attacks in the region, saying the “Syrian people deserve to rebuild their country free from foreign occupation and violence”.
Pushing ‘beyond’ the Golan
Israeli forces’ deployment in the buffer zone near the occupied Syrian Golan Heights tramples on a 50-year ceasefire agreement with Syria, which established the buffer zone, according to United Nations peacekeepers.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said “Israel has taken the opportunity of Damascus being preoccupied with a change of regime to expand their presence in the Golan Heights and perhaps beyond”.
Israel “called it temporary, but we know the implications when Israel says temporary,” Bishara said. “In the occupied West Bank, for example, it’s been almost six decades.”
Al Jazeera’s Federica Marsi contributed to this report.
