The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out airstrikes in southern Syria on the evening of March 17, targeting a number of sites. The strikes come two weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Syria’s south to be demilitarized. Since February 25, the IDF has been widening its attacks on sites in this area and Damascus, targeting what Israel states are threats.
On March 17, the IDF said it was “striking military targets in southern Syria, including command centers and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian Regime, which they [the new forces in Syria] are attempting to make reusable.” The Israeli military noted that “the presence of military assets in southern Syria poses a threat to the State of Israel. The IDF will not allow the presence of military threats in southern Syria and will operate against it.” Reports from Syria indicate that a site of the former Bashar al Assad regime’s 132nd Brigade near Daraa airport was struck.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three civilians were killed in the airstrikes in Daraa province, and others were wounded. The Israeli operations come at a critical time for the country, after Syrians took to the streets on March 15 to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime and the anniversary of the uprising that began in Daraa 14 years ago.
The strikes also happened as Syria’s new government is trying to assert itself on various fronts. It has signed a deal with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, clashed with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and recently sent security forces to Busra al Sham, a key city near Daraa.
SANA said that “as part of organizing and expanding the role of the Public Security Department in enhancing security in the eastern countryside of Daraa Governorate, the Department has opened a branch in the city of Busra al-Sham in the countryside of the governorate.” Busra al Sham is the hometown of Ahmad al Awda, a well-known Syrian rebel leader who backs the new government in Damascus. Jordan also opened the Jaber Border Crossing with Syria on March 18. The crossing is several kilometers from Busra al Sham.
The IDF did not elaborate on the specific targets of the strikes on March 17. However, it issued a map detailing “dozens” of targets hit in previous strikes in southern Syria on March 12. In those raids, the IDF used 22 warplanes and launched 60 munitions at sites that included radars and a headquarters of the former Syrian regime.
The Assad regime left behind many army posts in southern Syria when it collapsed on December 8, and the IDF also carried out wide-ranging strikes on these and other targets in the days after the regime fell. However, many military assets and various posts remain, including some old Syrian military forts near the Golan, such as the one at Tel al Hara, which the IDF struck in late February.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz spelled out some of Israel’s strategy on March 11 at the peak of Mount Hermon, which the IDF took after previously occupying positions lower down the mountain before December 8. “Every morning when al-Jolani opens his eyes at the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF watching him from the peak of the Hermon,” Katz said, using Syrian interim President Ahmed al Sharaa’s nom de guerre. Sharaa has distanced himself from the name and the group he led, Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), but he remains a US specially designated global terrorist (SDGT).
The Times of Israel noted on March 11 that Israel’s new buffer zone in Syria consists of 5 kilometers from the Golan border. The IDF has created nine small new posts in this area, which it took over on December 8. A second buffer zone is “up to 15 kilometers deep into Syria,” the report said. In this area, the IDF has conducted raids to remove leftover weapons from the regime. A third zone, 80 kilometers deep, includes Daraa province and reaches the Druze city of Suwayda.
The segmentation of southern Syria into zones is not entirely new in IDF doctrine. In 2018, when the Assad regime defeated Syrian rebels in southern Syria and returned to the border, Israel operated to remove Iranian threats from the area. At the time, a report suggested that “Jerusalem wants Iranian troops and Shiite militia groups aligned with it to be at least 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Golan Heights, Israel’s northern border with Syria.” The new zone is similar to the policy dating back eight years.
Israel is widening its role in southern Syria. It has enabled Syrian Druze to visit Israel and is working on allowing those who live in or near the new border buffer zone to work in Israel. The weekly airstrikes illustrate that Israel’s demand for demilitarization will continue, including IDF strikes and ground operations to remove munitions. Israel has also carried out airstrikes in Damascus. On March 13, the IDF targeted the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad in a strike.
