DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL

Israeli warplanes flew above two southern Syrian provinces on Saturday, according to the Daraa governorate's Telegram channel.

“Israeli occupation warplanes flew at low altitude over the skies of Daraa and Quneitra provinces,” it said.

The reason for the flyovers remained unclear, with Syrian officials not sure if they were reconnaissance missions or a prelude to potential airstrikes, as seen in recent weeks.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa revealed Wednesday that his administration is engaged in “indirect talks with Israel through mediators to de-escalate so that the situation doesn’t reach a point where neither side can contain it.”

Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967. Following the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, Israel expanded its control, seizing the Syrian buffer zone and declaring a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria defunct.

Israel also took control of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh), a strategic peak that lies near the Syrian-Lebanese border that overlooks Israeli territory.

Although Syria’s new leadership under al-Sharaa has not issued threats against Israel, Tel Aviv has been conducting near-daily airstrikes on Syrian territory for months.

A new transitional administration was formed in Syria in January following the fall of the Assad regime.

Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia in December, ending the Baath Party’s decades-long grip on power that began in 1963.