Syria

The Syrian civil war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces, including ISIS, has been ongoing since 2011. Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia are all on the ground in Syria fighting to support the Syrian regime against ISIS and many other rebels. This confluence of several different enemies, some religious radicals and others secular, has produced a muddy conflict with no good possible outcomes. Israel, on Syria’s southern border, has stayed out of the war except for occasional targeted strikes when Israel’s security was threatened, and humanely treating those wounded in the conflict. On February 10, 2018, Iranian forces stationed in Syria invaded Israel’s air space with a drone, provoking Israel to respond by shooting the UAV out of the sky and attacking the vehicle on the ground in Syria operating the drone. During the course of Israel’s counterattack, Syrian anti-aircraft missiles shot down an Israeli F-16 and injured two pilots. The IDF responded by destroying 4 Syrian command posts and 8 Iranian command posts in Syria. This incident showed that Iran and its allies in Syria are spoiling for a fight with Israel.

Syria

Israel, Russia said to reach secret deal on pushing Iran away from Syria border

Israel and Russia have reached a secret agreement to distance Iranian forces from the border area in southern Syria, Israeli TV reported Monday, as Jerusalem and Moscow sent differing messages regarding the extent of their tolerance for Iran’s military presence in that country.

Under the apparent agreement coming together, Israel will accept the…

Syria

IDF orders bomb shelters opened due to Iranian troop movement in Syria

The military instructed local governments on Tuesday to open bomb shelters to residents of the Golan Heights following the identification of “abnormal movements of Iranian forces in Syria.”

The army also said it raised preparedness of “troops for an attack” and deployed air defenses in the north of the country.

“The IDF’s instructions should…

Syria

A Hard Lesson in Syria: Assad Can Still Gas His Own People

When Syria shipped what it claimed was the last of its chemical weapons out of the country in 2014, John Kerry, the secretary of state at the time, declared that it showed that skillful diplomacy could achieve far more than attacks on a few facilities.

“We struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out,” he said a few weeks…

Syria

Breaking Down Decades of Barriers: The IDF Helps Wounded Syrians

Israel has a long history of providing humanitarian aid to civilians in countries all around the world — including Haiti, Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Mexico, and even the United States. Syria is also included on that list, despite the fact that the two countries have no diplomatic relations and have been in a state of war since the…

Syria

Special Briefing

Syria

Watch the Israeli Air Force Hits Syria’s Nuclear Reactor in 2007

Syria

The Secret Operation Revealed a Decade Later

Background and Preparations for the Operation

For two years, officials in the Military Intelligence Directorate had been monitoring the Syrian nuclear project. Their intelligence suggested that the facility would become active toward the end of 2007, which prompted the IDF to initiate an attack on the facility.

The Israeli Air Force had very…

Syria

The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot tells us his point of view of the attack on the Syrian nuclear facility in 2007, when he was the GOC of the Northern Command

Syria

Ending a decade of silence, Israel confirms it blew up Assad’s nuclear reactor

The State of Israel on Wednesday formally acknowledged that its air force blew up a Syrian nuclear reactor in the area of Deir Ezzor in the pre-dawn hours between September 5 and 6, 2007, in a mission known to much of the world as Operation Orchard.

The official confirmation ends a 10-and-a-half year policy of referring to the event with a smirk…

Syria

Israeli hospital treats Syrians suffering from emotional trauma

Given the enormous death toll of the ongoing war in Syria, it is easy to overlook—or fail to attribute importance to—the psychological well-being of those who have endured. But the severe trauma faced by so many Syrians has left an entire generation with intangible scars. It is an issue that, somewhat counter-intuitively, Syria’s arch-enemy,…

Syria

Israel launches ‘large-scale’ strikes in Syria after drone infiltration

Israel’s military attacked 12 Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria on Saturday in a new wave of strikes it described as a ‘large-scale’ attack, following exchanges of fire earlier in the day sparked by an Iranian drone infiltration from Syria.

The military called the drone infiltration a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty” and…

Syria

Syrian refugee baby airlifted to Israel for emergency heart surgery

A 2-day-old baby boy born in Cyprus to a pair of Syrian refugees was airlifted to Israel early Saturday for emergency surgery to repair a life-threatening heart defect.

The baby was born in a refugee camp in Cyprus where his parents had fled to escape the ongoing Syrian civil war. He was diagnosed with a heart defect that the Cypriots were…

Syria

Satellite shows aftermath of alleged Israeli strike on Iranian base in Syria

Satellite photos published Monday showed the aftermath of an alleged Israeli airstrike on a reported Iranian military base being constructed in Syria, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Israel’s northern border, indicating several building had been destroyed.

The images, provided by the Israeli satellite company, ImageSat International, show the…

Syria

Exclusive: 3 Syrian Casulties Of Chemical Warfare Being Treated In Israel

Three Syrian rebels wounded last week in an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad were sent for treatment in Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

If Syrians hurt in the attack entered Israel for treatment, it would be the first confirmed case.

“The forces shelled a strategic site controlled by the…

Syria

Filmed crossing into Israel with sick kid, mother says all Syrians want to come

In unprecedented footage, the IDF allowed an Israeli TV crew to film it opening the border gates to Syria, and allowing in a group of mothers and their children, who were then transported to an Israeli hospital for medical treatment.

The footage, broadcast on Sunday night by Hadashot News (formerly Channel 2), also included interviews with…

Syria

Israeli army says ready to help Druze under attack in Syria

Israel issued a rare warning Friday that it would intervene militarily if necessary to defend a Druze village on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights after it came under attack.

The Druze village of Hadar is aligned with the Syrian government, creating an unusual scenario if Israel does indeed deploy forces to defend it as Syria and Israel are…

Syria

Israel believes rocket fire from Syria may have been deliberate

Israel believes five rockets fired across the border from Syria early Saturday morning may have been deliberately launched at Israel, rather than constituting errant spillover from clashes in Syria, military sources said late Saturday.

Israel fired back into Syria, hitting three rocket launchers, in response to the rocket fire, and warned that…

Issues Syria

TV report: Islamic State chiefs gather near Israel border, set up training camp

Several senior commanders from Islamic State who recently fled from Iraq and northern Syria are now based in southern Syria, just across the Golan Heights border with Israel, and are training hundreds of new recruits there, an Israeli television report said.

Israel’s Channel 2 said the commanders have made their way to an Islamic State-controlled…