As Israel destroys Syria’s air defences, Assad ‘benefits from war in Gaza’

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On a June’s day in 2006, when Hamas’s leadership was still based in Damascus, Israeli fighter jets swooped over the summer palace of President Bashar Al Assad on the Mediterranean coast.

The manoeuvre was a warning to the president about the costs of harbouring leaders of the militant group, which has since become increasingly influenced by Iran.

They were driving a hard bargain in prisoner-exchange talks with Israel after its abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit.

While the Israeli air force does not seem to have flown over Mr Assad’s palace since, over the past decade it has repeatedly struck at pro-Iranian militias that have proliferated in Syria since the 2011 uprising. The raids have increasingly targeted the President’s elite military units as well as the country’s main airports.

The raids have accelerated in recent weeks as some of these militias fired rockets sporadically at Israeli targets in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

Damascus airport has been struck at least three times since Israel launched a full-scale air and land campaign on Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The airport, which lies on the south-eastern edge of the capital, took the latest hit from missiles on Sunday, among other targets around the city, forcing it again to halt operations, according to official media.

The other targets comprised air defence positions, similar to the strikes over the past month in Damascus and Aleppo, as well as in Deraa governorate, south of the capital, said a Syrian opposition figure, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The Israelis want to continue to fly unopposed and curb the build-up of an Iranian command-and-control system integrating Syrian army units,” he said.

His account was corroborated by a western security official.

Israel has, in particular, been striking at old Russian Pantsir and Buk mobile air defences.