Israel attacks vehicle in Syria as US envoy suggests an earlier strike on the Abu al-Duhur base may have been aimed at provoking Turkiye.
Israel has launched a drone attack on a vehicle in southwestern Syria, wounding several people, as the United States’ envoy to Damascus suggested that an earlier attack on a northwestern airbase could have been aimed at “baiting” Turkiye.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
The envoy also said Israel did not warn the US before the strike.
AdvertisementQatar also expressed its “strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli attack” on Saturday.
Israel attacks vehicle in Syria as US envoy suggests an earlier strike on the Abu al-Duhur base may have been aimed at provoking Turkiye.
Israel has launched a drone attack on a vehicle in southwestern Syria, wounding several people, as the United States’ envoy to Damascus suggested that an earlier attack on a northwestern airbase could have been aimed at “baiting” Turkiye.
Syria’s official Alikhbariya channel reported on Saturday that an Israeli drone hit a civilian vehicle near the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside, wounding a man.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned “in the strongest terms” the Israeli targeting of a “civilian vehicle” and said it resulted in several civilian injuries.
“This attack constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the integrity of its territory, and a blatant breach of international law, and comes in the context of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory,” it said.
Israel’s military confirmed the strike, saying in a statement that it had targeted “a terrorist who advanced terror attacks in their final stages of preparation” in southern Syria. The activity “posed an immediate threat to our forces”, the military added.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. It has also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that for decades had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.
On Tuesday, it attacked the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northwestern Idlib province, claiming Turkiye had been seeking to establish a military presence there. Both Damascus and Ankara deny the allegations.
United States special envoy for Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack, who is also ambassador to Turkiye, had condemned the attack as an “unnecessary escalation” and on Friday said the strike may have been intended to provoke a conflict with Turkiye ahead of the upcoming general elections in Israel.
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“One theory is they were just baiting Turkiye, and it’s a very aggressive, but maybe well-received, pre-election concept,” Barrack said in an interview with influencer Mario Nawfal.
The envoy also said Israel did not warn the US before the strike.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz hit back on Saturday, calling the remarks “full of inaccuracies”.
Israel sees southern Syria ‘as a security zone’
Israel’s latest strike on Syria hit a small delivery truck on the main road between the Beit Jinn farmland and the town itself, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Adham Abu al-Hussam.
“Residents say [one of the victims is] a civilian who works as a driver, delivering goods and orders on this truck,” Abu al-Hussam said, adding that neighbours rushed a wounded man to hospital after hearing the explosion.
He is in stable condition with an injury to his right hand, according to a medical source.
Abu al-Hussam said residents had reported Israeli reconnaissance drones flying over the area for four days. Beit Jinn, which lies near Jabal al-Sheikh and roughly 55km (34 miles) from Damascus, has been repeatedly targeted in the past year, including in a late November raid that killed 13 civilians, he said.
Muhsen al-Mustafa, a security and strategic researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies in Damascus, told Al Jazeera that the attack could be a message from Israel to the Syrian government.
“Israel currently treats Syria, particularly the south, as a security zone it is trying to fill any vacuum in.”
He said Israel had used a similar rationale days earlier when it struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase, saying the aim was to prevent a Turkish military presence there.
That strike, he said, signalled that Israel’s declared security zone “isn’t limited to the south” but “extends even to Abu al-Duhur airport”, roughly in the middle of the country. “Israel’s security zone, it’s saying, extends further than that.”
Al-Mustafa suggested that Israel opted for a drone strike rather than sending in ground forces partly because of a November raid, when Israeli troops came under direct fire during the incursion into Beit Jinn and six soldiers were injured, three of them seriously. “Israel is always trying to apply pressure and ask for more in every round of negotiation,” he said.
A Syrian diplomatic source told Al Jazeera that Damascus remains committed to de-escalation and is pursuing a security arrangement with Israel through US mediation, based on the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
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Qatar also expressed its “strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli attack” on Saturday.
“[Qatar] considers this an unacceptable aggression and a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and a threat to its security and safety”, a statement by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, affirming Doha’s solidarity with the current Syrian government.
“Israel’s continued violation of the sovereignty of regional countries constitutes a dangerous approach and unacceptable escalation, and a disregard for the provisions of international law,” it added.
