ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Israeli military on Sunday said it carried out airstrikes against military infrastructure in Syria as a retaliatory measure against strikes that had come from Syria, with fears of a spillover of the Israel-Hamas war mounting. “An IDF fighter jet attacked a short time ago the launchers from which the launches were made last night from Syrian territory towards Israeli territory,” the military said on X. The aircraft “struck military infrastructure in Syrian territory,” the military added. The strikes come as Israel continues its relentless air assault of the Gaza Strip, claiming to be targeting the Hamas militant group, with Damascus repeatedly blasting Israel for “its continuing crimes against the Palestinian people and the massacres it commits against innocent civilians,” accusing it of supporting “terrorism in Syria,” Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on government-controlled areas of Syria throughout its 12-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah groups which supports the Syrian army. On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes targeted military sites in Syria’s southwestern Daraa countryside, killing eight soldiers. Last week, a series of Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s main Damascus and Aleppo airports knocked them out of service, after similar strikes a week prior also rendered the runways unusable. While it rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran to gain a foothold there.
