Israel launched fresh airstrikes on southern Syria on Tuesday, hours after two projectiles were fired into Israeli territory. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said the rockets, which landed in open areas near the Golan Heights communities of Hispin and Ramat Magshimim, were launched from the Tasil area in southern Syria—close to a region where gunmen had attacked Israeli troops in April. No casualties were reported from the rocket impacts.
In response, the IDF targeted what it described as weapons depots and launch sites, inflicting what Syria’s foreign ministry called "significant human and material losses". The ministry condemned the strikes as a "blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty", warning that they risk destabilising an already volatile region. Violent explosions were reported in Quneitra and Daraa, both in southern Syria, as confirmed by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz placed direct responsibility for the rocket attacks on Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. "The Syrian regime is responsible for what is happening in Syria and will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory," the IDF said. Katz reiterated this, saying: "We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel."
Syrian authorities claimed they were still verifying reports of the rocket launches but strongly condemned Israel’s retaliatory strikes."We are in dire need of calm and peaceful solutions," Syria’s foreign ministry stated, urging the international community to intervene and support regional stability.
Tuesday’s escalation follows a series of Israeli strikes over recent months. The most recent occurred on May 30, when Israeli aircraft bombed areas near Zama, in the Latakia region of western Syria. One civilian was reportedly killed in that attack. The Israeli military claimed the strike targeted coastal missile storage facilities that posed a threat to Israeli and international maritime traffic.
In late April, Israel struck near the presidential palace in Damascus—a rare move seen as a direct warning to the new Syrian leadership. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike was meant to signal that Israel “will not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus”. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres criticised the action as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
Since the overthrow of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 by an Islamist coalition led by al-Sharaa, Israel has dramatically intensified its military operations in Syria. It has carried out over 700 strikes in a bid to destroy Syria’s military infrastructure and prevent advanced weapons from reaching groups hostile to Israel. The collapse of Assad’s Iran-aligned regime gave Israel a strategic opening to degrade enemy capabilities and reassert control over the contested Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967.
Despite some indirect talks between Damascus and Jerusalem aimed at de-escalation, tensions have remained high. The latest rocket attacks mark the first from Syrian territory since May 2024, and the first time air raid sirens were triggered in the Golan Heights since a drone alert in November.
Responsibility for yesterday’s rocket launches remains unclear. Arab and Palestinian media have reported claims from a little-known group calling itself the Muhammad Deif Brigades, which is named after the slain Hamas military commander. But these claims remain unverified.
While Israeli officials cite the need to prevent hostile entrenchment in Syria, other factors also appear to drive their operations. Chief among these is a longstanding kinship with Syria’s Druze minority, many of whom live in Israel and serve in its military. In April, when clashes broke out between Druze fighters and Syrian government forces in the Sweida region, Israel expressed readiness to protect Druze communities across the border and also launched cross-border bomb attacks.
However, Israel’s strategy faces new headwinds from Washington. In a dramatic shift, President Donald Trump last month announced that his administration would lift all sanctions on Syria, imposed over atrocities committed by Assad’s regime during the country’s 13-year civil war. The announcement followed an unexpected meeting between Trump and President al-Sharaa, during which the US leader called the new Syrian president someone with “a real shot at pulling it together”.
The Trump initiative has cast a shadow over Israeli military operations, forcing its government to recalibrate. Publicly, Israeli officials remain defiant, but the frequency of strikes has declined since Trump’s outreach. The US move towards rapprochement with Damascus undermines Israeli efforts to exploit Syrian instability and entrench its strategic advantages, particularly in the Golan Heights.
“The Syrian crisis is not just about territory or threats,” one Israeli analyst said. “It’s now entangled with a shifting American doctrine that may no longer see Israel’s military dominance as the default solution.”