Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that “Together with the prime minister, I have instructed the [military] to establish a sterile defense zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence,” Katz said during a visit to a naval base in the Israeli city of Haifa, Middle East Eye quoted him as saying. He claimed it was in order to “to prevent the establishment and organization of terrorism in Syria.”
Katz gave few details on what the zone entailed, but warned Syria’s rebels that “whoever follows Assad’s path will end up like Assad. We will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel.”
Earlier news reports had put Israeli troops as far as 10 km inside Syrian territory.
At the same time, the Israeli military announced that it carried out more than 350 strikes in Syria over the 48 hours through mid-day yesterday, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country to stop them from falling into the hands of extremists, reported AP. The targets included air defense systems, military airfields, missile depots and dozens of weapons production sites in Damascus and other cities. The IDF claimed that it had destroyed 80% of the military capabilities of the Syrian military.
Israeli missile ships also simultaneously struck two Syrian navy facilities destroying 15 Syrian navy missile boats, said the IDF.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen during a press conference in Geneva yesterday said that Israeli military operations in Syria, which he called “a very troubling development,” needed to stop. “This is extremely important,” he said. Pedersen added later: “Extremely important that we now don’t see any action from any international actor that destroys the possibility for this transformation in Syria to take place.”
