Israeli warplanes launch airstrikes in Syria’s Quneitra

JERUSALEM

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the Khan Arnabeh area in Syria’s southern Quneitra province on Tuesday.

A military statement said the strikes targeted two cannons “that constituted a threat” to Israel.

“The presence of weapons in southern Syria poses a threat to the State of Israel,” the army claimed, saying that it “will not allow a military threat from southern Syria and will operate against the threat.”

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian authorities on the Israeli statement.

Israel has called for the demilitarization of southern Syria and carried out multiple airstrikes in the area in recent weeks.

On Monday, Syria’s civil defense said three people were killed and 19 others injured, including four children and a woman, in Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Daraa.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

Israel also launched hundreds of airstrikes that targeted military sites and assets across Syria, including fighter jets, missile systems, and air defense installations, according to reports.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.