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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Thursday said overnight attacks on Syria that killed at least 13 people were a warning to Damascus that it would pay a heavy price if it allowed “hostile forces” to enter the country.
The casualties were reported in separate attacks across Syria. Shelling and an incursion killed nine people as troops conducted a raid in the south, the local government and a war monitor said, with the Israeli army saying its forces were responding to fire from militants.
Several Israeli military vehicles entered an area in south Syria's Deraa province and “three artillery shells” struck the area, local authorities said on Telegram on Wednesday night.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people died and several were injured, including Syrian Defence Ministry staff, in strikes on Hama military airport.
“If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests – you will pay a very heavy price,” Mr Katz said. “The Air Force's activity is a warning to the future – we will not allow harm to the security of the state of Israel.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday Israel was concerned at the “negative role” Turkey is playing in Syria, Lebanon and other countries. “They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It's clear that is their intention,” he told a news conference in Paris.
Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks as “a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty”, saying on Telegram that “Israeli forces launched air strikes on five locations across the country”.
“This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilise Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people,” it said.
It said the strikes resulted in the “near-total destruction” of a military airport in the central Syrian province of Hama, wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers. Syrian state media said a strike hit “the vicinity of the scientific research building” in Damascus's northern Barzeh neighbourhood.
The Israeli military said forces “struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian bases of Hama and T4, along with additional remaining military infrastructure sites in the area of Damascus”.
The latest strikes on Syria come amid an expansion of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and days after it resumed strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut.
“At a time when Syria is striving to rebuild after 14 years of war, these repeated attacks form part of a clear Israeli strategy to normalise violence once again within the country,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry added.
Syria's transitional authorities have been seeking to rebuild the country and repair international relations since the collapse of the former regime under Bashar Al Assad in December. Turkey has backed Syrian rebels throughout the Syrian civil war and has said it is ready to provide the new authorities with military training if requested.
Turkey is estimated to maintain a few thousand troops in towns including Afrin, Azaz and Jarablus in north-western Syria and Ras Al Ain and Tel Abyad in the north-east.
But Israel has carried out frequent strikes that it says are aimed at ensuring weapons do not fall in the hands of the new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham-led authorities, whom it considers to be extremist Islamists. Last month, Israel said it struck the T4 military base in central Homs province twice, aiming at military capabilities at the site.
Israel has also sent troops to the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the demilitarisation of southern Syria.
Last month, during a visit to Jerusalem, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Israeli strikes on Syria were “unnecessary” and threatened to worsen the situation.
