The Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, criticized the American special envoy to Syria, also ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, on Saturday August 22, for having criticized an Israeli strike carried out on Tuesday against a Syrian military base.
Israel had transmitted “intelligence information to authorized parties in the United States” before the strike, aimed, according to the Jewish state, at preventing a Turkish deployment, and Tom Barrack’s criticisms are “riddled with inaccuracies and positions that contradict the line of US President Donald Trump”wrote Israel Katz on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Wednesday to have “clearly” informed Turkey that it should not set up a base in Syria, tacitly recognizing the strike which targeted the military airport of Abu Dhouhour the day before, in the Syrian province of Idleb (north-west). “We will not tolerate Turkish military entrenchment advancing towards the south, because it threatens us”Benjamin Netanyahu declared in an interview broadcast by army radio.
Without explicitly claiming responsibility for this strike, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office initially stated that“Israel had repeatedly warned Syria” against a Turkish military deployment, “which would constitute a threat to the security of Israel”but that Damascus had “chose to ignore these warnings”.
Israeli drone attack near Golan Heights
Turkey, which has had terrible relations with Israel since the war in Gaza, has, for its part, denied any plans to deploy troops in Syria. Tom Barrack condemned the strikes, accusing Israel of“unnecessary escalation”.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syria since the December 2024 overthrow of President Bashar Al-Assad by a coalition of Islamist groups. The Jewish state also deployed troops in the buffer zone placed under UN surveillance which separated the forces of the two countries on the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1974, claiming to want to maintain a “safety zone”.
Damascus condemned “in the strongest terms” the raid against the Abou Dhouhour base, qualifying it “unjustified act of aggression” from Israel.
On Saturday, Syria also condemned an Israeli drone attack near the Golan Heights which left one person injured. “This attack constitutes a flagrant violation of sovereignty” from Syria “as well as a clear violation of international law, and takes place in the context of Israel’s repeated attacks against Syrian territory”said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
The Israeli army, for its part, said its forces had fired on one person in southern Syria. “who was preparing terrorist attacks, in their final phase”without identifying her or specifying whether she belonged to a particular group.
