Israel launches new attack on Syria with strikes against tanks

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The Israeli military said it had struck “several tanks” in southern Syria on Monday, announcing its first attack on the country in weeks after dozens of people were killed in sectarian clashes in a border province.

The strikes came in the midst of fighting between Druze militias and Bedouin clans in Sweida, where Syria’s interior ministry said at least 30 people have been killed, and roughly 100 injured.

The Syrian government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa had deployed security forces to restore calm, with images on social media showing armoured personnel carriers heading south, and at least one ageing tank on a truck bed.

The Israel Defense Forces did not clarify who it had targeted, but said the strikes aimed to stop the vehicles from approaching Sweida, claiming they “may pose a threat to the State of Israel”.

Since Sharaa and allied forces toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime last year, Israel has taken territory along the border and launched repeated attacks inside Syria, saying that it is acting both to protect the Druze minority and unilaterally enforce a de facto demilitarised zone south of Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said in May that the country would not “allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community”.

But the latest strikes come after Israel and Syria — which have never had diplomatic relations — held several rounds of direct talks in recent months, with Israeli officials previously saying they were seeking a “non-belligerence” security agreement with their neighbour.

The Syrian government, Turkey and Arab officials have criticised Israel’s military interventions, saying they added to the instability and undermined Sharaa’s efforts to stabilise the fragile state. His government has repeatedly said it does not want conflict with its neighbours, including Israel.

This week’s clashes between Druze militias and the Bedouin Arab clans, who have a long history of enmity, are the latest in a wave of sectarian violence in Syria in recent months.

Syrian media reported the latest fighting erupted over a series of recent kidnappings. 

The province has been on edge for months, following clashes between government forces and Druze militia in April that left the Druze fearful of the new authorities in Damascus. No government security forces have entered the province since then.

Sweida province is predominantly populated by members of the Druze faith, but Arab tribes also live there.

Druze militia now run checkpoints into the province, with the clans split over whether to integrate with the government in Damascus or consolidate influence with Israeli support, where some of the clans maintain family ties with an Israeli Druze community that serves in the Israeli military.

Interior minister Anas Khattab said in a statement carried on state media that “the absence of state institutions, especially military and security institutions, is a major cause of the ongoing tensions in Sweida and its countryside”.

The spokesperson for the ministry told state news outlet al-Ekhbariya that government forces had clashed with “outlawed armed groups” on the ground, without specifying which.

Sectarian killings and clashes over the past few months have raised concerns about how effectively the government, which has focused on rebuilding Syria’s armed forces, can regain control over the fractured state, protect minorities and improve security.