Israel shelled parts of Syria claiming it was in response to rockets being fired at Golan Heights from the neighbouring country.
Key Points On Israel Syria Conflict
- With an ultra-nationalist government coming to power in Israel, the region has been simmering for months.
- As the Muslim holy month of Ramzan coincided with the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian Easter, things have been on edge.
- Amid all this, the Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, considered the third holiest site in Islam.
- This served as the immediate trigger for a wave of rocket attacks, including from Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and Syria.
- In Syria, Israel’s actions come out of the fear that arch rival Iran is using the long-running war in the country to station its fighters and weapons close to Israel’s borders.
- Israel is also locked in a conflict with the Hezbollah, which holds sway in another neighbour, Lebanon
Parties Of Israel Syria Conflict
- The government’s key supporters have been Russia and Iran, while Turkey, Western powers and several Gulf Arab states have backed the opposition to varying degrees during the conflict.
- Russia– which had military bases in Syria before the war – launched an air campaign in support of Mr Assad in 2015 that has been crucial in turning the tide of the war in the government’s favour.
- Iranis believed to have deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Mr Assad.
- Thousands of Shia Muslim militiamen armed, trained and financed by Iran – mostly fromLebanon’s Hezbollah movement, but also Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen – have also fought alongside the Syrian army.
- The US, UK and France initially provided support for what they considered “moderate” rebel groups. But they have prioritised non-lethal assistance since jihadists became the dominant force in the armed opposition.
- Turkey is a major supporter of the opposition, but its focus has been on using rebel factions to contain the Kurdish YPG militia that dominates the SDF, accusing it of being an extension of a banned Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.
- Saudi Arabia, which is keen to counter Iranian influence, armed and financed the rebels at the start of the war, as did the kingdom’s Gulf rival, Qatar.
Impact Of Israel Syria Conflict
- Many years of war have inflicted immense suffering on the Syrian people.
- More than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 22 million have fled their homes.
- Some 6.9 million are internally displaced, with more than two million living in tented camps with limited access to basic services.
- Another 6.8 million are refugees or asylum-seekers abroad. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, which are hosting 84% of them, have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history.
- As of February 2022, 6 million people inside Syria were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN, including about 5 million classified as being in extreme or catastrophic need.
- Much of Syria’s rich cultural heritage has also been destroyed. All six of the country’s Unesco World Heritage sites have been damaged significantly, with IS militants deliberately blowing up parts of the ancient city of Palmyra.
Current Status Of Israel Syria Conflict
- While Israel and Syria have had a bilateral conflict, things worsened after the launch of the Syria war in 2011
- Iran, which denies Israel’s right to exist, emerged as a major player, supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
- Thus, for more than 10 years, Iran’s weapons, money, and fighters have poured into Syria, its Eastern neighbour.
- Rockets sometimes land in Israel as “errant fire”, as the various combatants in Syria fight each other
Israel Syria Relations
- Before this, Israel and Syria fought the Six-Day War in 1967, in which Israel seized Golan Heights, which it has occupied since then.
- The fertile plateau of Golan Heights overlooks both Israel and Syria, offering a commanding military vantage.
- Syrian forces made an abortive bid to recapture Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The 1974 ceasefire agreement, however, left most of the area in Israeli hands.
- In 1981, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law, which extended Israel’s “laws, jurisdiction and administration” to the area, in effect annexing it.
- In 2000, Israel and Syria made a failed attempt at negotiating a settlement.
- In recent years, Israel has been accused of carrying out targeted strikes in Syria, though it doesn’t acknowledge them.
Syria War
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