Middle East Monitor / December 11, 2024
The Israeli army told journalists on Tuesday that it had completed the main part of its aggressive military campaign against Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, targeting the military capabilities of the Syrian state. The occupation army claimed that it had destroyed between 70 and 80 per cent of these capabilities.
The campaign in Syria is called Operation Bashan Arrow by the occupation regime. This is a reference to a Biblical kingdom which was part of the land of Canaan, and is believed to have been located in southern Syria and eastern Jordan. The word “Bashan” in Hebrew means “flat or paved land”.
The area was named after Mount Bashan, known today as Jabal al-Arab or Jabal al-Druze in southern Syria. That’s where Israeli vehicles infiltrated and occupied the buffer zone demilitarised under the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.
According to the Israeli occupation army, over the past few days it has attacked more than 320 targets in Syria with 350 fighter jets flying 359 sorties against “strategic military capabilities”. It claims that this aims to “prevent the access to strategic weapons for hostile parties.”
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi approved the operational plans last Saturday during his visit to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. On the same night, the Israeli Air Force began launching raids targeting various parts of Syria, from Damascus to Tartus. The targets destroyed included dozens of combat aircraft and helicopters, in addition to radar systems, anti-aircraft missile batteries, ships, surface-to-surface missile systems, rockets, naval missiles and weapons production facilities.
The Israeli attacks also targeted weapons and ammunition depots in Syria, Scud missiles, guided cruise missiles, naval ballistic missiles, drone warehouses and other military capabilities of the Syrian state.
The occupation army revealed that the operation on the ground is continuing, as ground forces are in the buffer zones to secure control of the area, destroy weapons and dismantle Syrian military infrastructure in the area, under the pretext of “ensuring that they do not reach unwanted parties”.
