Israeli forces destroyed the Syrian military fleet in an operation on Monday night as part of a broad campaign to eliminate strategic threats to Israel, defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, during a visit to a naval base in Haifa.

“The IDF (military) has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel. The navy operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success,” Katz said.

Reuters reports that in a statement he said Israeli forces were establishing themselves in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and said he had ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Didn’t Israel occupy the Golan Heights, saying they need it as a buffer zone?
    And then they established a “demilitarized zone” between Syria and the Golan Heights, to “protect themselves”.
    Which they have now occupied with their military.
    Now they want a buffer inside Syria, to protect the buffer of their buffer.
    And they’re also bombing Damascus “defensively”.

    I don’t know what thought process leads to believing that bombing the capital of another country, which hasn’t attacked you, is self defense.
    But I guess we in the west are expected to twist our minds around the idea a little.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        “Israel can occupy a few more thousand square miles of Syria, as a treat”

    • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      I don’t know what thought process leads to believing that bombing the capital of another country, which hasn’t attacked you, is self defense.

      The same twisted and ill mindset that claims “bombing refugee camps full of innocent men, women and children is self-defense”.

      The main issue is; The western countries, the USA and many other countries are either okay with it, agree with it, pretending to be blind or are unable to do anything.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      24 hours ago

      I’m surprised Russia and Israel aren’t bigger friends since they seem to be so similar lmao

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        22 hours ago

        They actually are. I don’t quite understand their relationship myself, but Israel has sold US tech to Russia a few times AFAIK.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      To answer your first question, yes. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since the sixties and they had effectively annexed it over 40 years ago, as Israeli law applies in the Golan Heights despite being a de jure piece of Syria.