{"id":915,"date":"2024-12-11T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/israel-bombs-syria-and-seizes-territory-as-netanyahu-pledges-to-change-the-face-of-the-middle-east\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T15:57:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T15:57:00","slug":"israel-bombs-syria-and-seizes-territory-as-netanyahu-pledges-to-change-the-face-of-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/israel-bombs-syria-and-seizes-territory-as-netanyahu-pledges-to-change-the-face-of-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel bombs Syria and seizes territory as Netanyahu pledges to change \u2018the face\u2019 of the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets <\/strong>across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years. <\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a rare press conference on Monday evening that the collapse of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime was \u201ca new and dramatic chapter.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cThe axis has not yet disappeared but as I promised \u2013 we are changing the face of the Middle East.\u201d <\/p>\n

Israeli officials have reveled in the downfall of Assad, a staunch ally of Iran who allowed his country to be used as a resupply route for Hezbollah in Lebanon. But they also fear what could come from radical Islamists governing Syria, which borders Israel in the occupied Golan Heights. <\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar told journalists on Monday that Israel was bombing Syrian military facilities housing chemical weapons stocks and long-range missiles to prevent them from falling \u201cinto the hands of extremists.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to what will be in the future, I\u2019m not a prophet,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is important right now to take all necessary steps in the context of the security of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the navy destroyed the Syrian naval fleet overnight, hailing it as \u201ca great success.\u201d An AFP photographer showed large scale destruction of military vessels at the Syrian naval port in Latakia. <\/p>\n

Images taken by an AFP journalist at Mezzeh Air Base southwest of Damascus also showed destroyed Syrian military helicopters. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab. <\/p>\n

The Arab League, a grouping of Arab nations, said Israel was \u201ctaking advantage of the developments in the internal situation in Syria,\u201d and Egypt said its moves \u201cconstitute an exploitation of the state of fluidity and vacuum\u2026 to occupy more Syrian territories.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Beyond the buffer zone\u2019<\/h2>\n

Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, denied that forces were \u201cadvancing toward\u201d Damascus, but acknowledged they were operating in Syria beyond the buffer zone. The Israeli military has insisted that it \u201cis not interfering with the internal events in Syria.\u201d <\/p>\n

Katz said in a statement on Monday that Israel was creating a \u201csecurity zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructures\u201d in southern Syria, \u201cbeyond the buffer zone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Israeli ground forces entered Syrian territory after Netanyahu on Sunday ordered the military to seize that demilitarized \u201carea of separation\u201d between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. That zone was established in 1974, after Israeli forces \u2013 responding to a Syrian attack \u2013 captured the Golan Heights in 1967. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, but it is still considered to be occupied Syria under international law. <\/p>\n

Israeli officials have refused to give details on how far Israeli forces will advance, or how long they will stay there. Danny Dannon, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council in a letter on Monday that his country had \u201cdeployed temporarily in few points.\u201d He said they were \u201climited and temporary measures to counter any further threat to its citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eyad Kourdi and Dana Karni contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a rare press conference on Monday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}