‘Southern Syria won’t become southern Lebanon’: Israel escalates strikes as new Syrian president calls for IDF withdrawal

Almost three months after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, relations between Israel and the new government remain highly tense.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for a complete demilitarization of southern Syria caused widespread outrage in Syria, its new president Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly al-Jolani) on Tuesday rejected the “provocative statements.”

However, within hours, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out intense strikes in the country, hitting “military targets in southern Syria, including headquarters and sites containing weapons.”

“The presence of military assets and forces in the southern part of Syria poses a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IDF stated. Defense Minister Israel Katz explained that the strikes were “part of the new policy we have defined of pacifying southern Syria – the message is clear: We will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”

On Tuesday, al-Sharaa chaired a “National Unity” conference in Syria intended to clarify the political and economic future of the war-torn country.

While he decried Israel’s “violation” of his nation's sovereignty and called on the international community to help “stop the aggression,” Israel's Kan News reported that al-Sharaa also sent conciliatory signals to Israel over the past several days.

Netanyahu’s statement on Sunday included a promise to protect the Druze community in southern Syria’s Suweida Province. After Syrian media reported that the comments resulted in several anti-Israel demonstrations across southern Syria – including the burning of Israeli flags – a Druze delegation met with the president in the capital, Damascus.

According to a Kan News source who was present at the meeting, al-Sharaa attempted to calm possible fears in the Druze community, as well as signal to Israel that his new regime would not pose a threat.

“There is no threat to security inside Syria. We want peace. We have no enemies. We want to build a country and provide services,” al-Sharaa reportedly said at the meeting. “We have no intention of starting a war with anyone.”

The source said al-Sharaa argued that the threat once posed from Syrian territory by the axis of the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran, no longer exists.

He also stressed his government’s efforts to combat Hezbollah’s weapon smuggling through Syria’s border with Lebanon.

At the National Unity conference, al-Sharaa also contradicted Netanyahu’s statements which implied that the Druze community was in danger of violent reprisals.

“Statements that claim certain communities are in danger, while those who say this present themselves as their protectors and saviors, are empty declarations that will not succeed in entrapping the Syrians,” al-Sharaa said.

Minorities like the Druze, the Alawites, Christians and Shia Muslims are categorized as infidels under the Islamist ideology espoused by many of al-Sharaa’s former terrorist allies, that he is now working to integrate into the country’s new security forces.

This is one of the main reasons for Israel’s concerns and its apparent new policy of enforcing southern Syria’s complete demilitarization.

“We will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon – any attempt by the Syrian regime forces and the country's terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria - will be met with fire,” emphasized Defense Minister Katz.

According to Syrian reports, the strikes late on Tuesday targeted sites in the area of al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, killing four people.

Other strikes reportedly hit a site in the town of Izra, further south. The Hezbollah-affiliated network al-Mayadeen claimed that an old Syrian army base was also targeted.

Following the strikes, protests against Israel erupted in Damascus and Homs. Footage, purportedly taken at one demonstration, showed a crowd urging al-Sharaa to attack Israel, chanting, “Dear Jolani, bomb Tel Aviv!”