Israel Launches Fresh Wave of Strikes on Syrian Airbases, Killing At Least Nine

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 defence 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 stepped up airstrikes on Syria overnight, declaring the attacks a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus as it accused their ally Turkey on Thursday of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate. The strikes, targeting air bases, a site near Damascus and the southwest, put renewed focus on Israeli concerns about the Islamists who deposed Bashar al-Assad in December, with Israeli officials viewing them as a rising threat at their border. Also suspicious of Ankara's sway over Damascus, Israel has been working to advance its goals in Syria since Assad was toppled, seizing ground in the southwest, declaring a willingness to protect the Druze minority, lobbying Washington for a weak state, and blowing up much of the Syrian military's heavy weapons and equipment in the days after he fell. The Israeli army said its forces operating in the southwest overnight killed several militants who opened fire on them.

Israeli strikes in Syria reportedly killed at least nine people in the southwest of the country on Thursday, as Israel accused Turkey of trying to build a “protectorate” in Syria. Syrian state news agency SANA said that those who died in the strikes were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that they were armed residents from the Daraa province. Israel had also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including more than a dozen strikes near a strategic air base in the city of Hama, where Turkey, a key ally of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, reportedly has interests in having a military presence.