JERUSALEM: Israel could respond to any Iranian attack on it from Syria by toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, an Israeli security cabinet minister said on Monday, hinting that Assad himself may be targeted for assassination.
Israel and Iran have traded blows over Syria since February, stirring concern that major escalation could be looming ahead of next week’s review decision by US President Donald Trump on the 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran.
On April 9, an air strike killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members at the Syrian base. Tehran blamed Israel and vowed unspecified retaliation, drawing Israeli counter-threats to broaden attacks on Iranian military assets in Syria.
Sharpening these warnings, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Monday that Assad may find himself in Israel’s sights.
“If Assad allows Iran to turn Syria into a military vanguard against us, to attack us from Syrian territory, he should know that would be the end of him, the end of his regime,” Steinitz told the Ynet news site.
Asked if that meant Israel might assassinate Assad, Steinitz said: “His blood would be forfeit.” He also appeared to suggest that his remarks did not reflect Israeli government policy, saying: “I’m not talking about any concrete proposal.”
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office or from Israel’s Defense Ministry.
A Ynet text story had quoted Steinitz as saying explicitly that Israel would kill Assad, but this was not borne out by a video clip of the interview.
Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and Russia have been reinforcing Damascus against a 7-year-old Syrian rebellion. The Israelis worry that Iran’s garrison will remain, linking with Hezbollah to form a broad Syrian-Lebanese front against them.
On Sunday, Israeli media carried what they described as an alert by Israel’s intelligence services that Iran was planning a missile salvo against Israeli military bases from within Syria.
Some analysts interpreted the publication as a warning to Iran that its plans were known, lest it try to carry out the missile strike without explicitly claiming responsibility.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss Syria, where Moscow wants to see Assad’s rule restored.
“Whoever is interested in Assad’s survival should do the honor of telling Assad to prevent attacks on Israel,” Steinitz said, alluding to Putin.
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Israeli minister threatens Assad over any Iranian attacks from Syria
Israeli minister threatens Assad over any Iranian attacks from Syria
- Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says that Assad may find himself in Israel’s sights
- Israel threatens to respond to any Iranian attack from Syria
Israel steps up evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem
- Palestinians living there say they are being forced out
- Area is close to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque
JERUSALEM: In Silwan in East Jerusalem, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Kayed Rajabi and his neighbors have been handed eviction orders in favor of an Israeli settler organization which has already taken over parts of the Palestinian district.
Rajabi’s home is surrounded by buildings that have raised large Israeli flags — a sign they are owned by settlers, who he said began buying homes in 2004, and have obtained about 40 buildings in Silwan now, many via forced evictions.
Settler group Ateret Cohanim had offered to buy him and other Palestinians out, he said, but most had refused.
He said he was among 32 families in the neighborhood who have now been ordered to leave, with him and his brothers given until the end of Ramadan — mid-March — to depart under an order from Israel’s Supreme Court that he showed Reuters.
“They want to force me out of the house I was born in, where my eyes first opened to life,” said Rajabi, explaining that his family had lived there since 1967 and bought the land from a Jordanian officer.
Daniel Luria, the executive director of Ateret Cohanim, called Palestinians in Silwan “illegal squatters,” saying the land was owned by Yemeni Jews before 1929 and that moving back was rectifying a historical injustice. Rajabi said that account was untrue.
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, for a future state and say that leaving their homes there could put an end to their hopes for ever. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the aim is to ‘bury’ the idea of a Palestinian state.
Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital — a status not recognized internationally — and has encouraged Jewish settlement of predominantly Palestinian areas. Settler incursions, sometimes violent, have ramped up since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 triggered the Gaza war.
Silwan is particularly contentious due to its proximity to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a longtime flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Rajabi said that Ateret Cohanim had offered him a blank check to leave, an offer he refused. “I wouldn’t sell them even a grain of soil. They told me, ‘Put whatever number you want and we’re ready to pay’,” he said.
He said that some people in the neighborhood had sold their homes, but that most families had refused.
Luria said that Ateret Cohanim had offered Silwan residents compensation for leaving. “This is part of an unfolding Zionist dream,” said Luria of the purchase of homes in Silwan.
Numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity, but successive Israeli governments have said settlements are critical to the country’s security. If Palestinians refuse orders to leave, armed police go in to evict them and diggers demolish their homes.
Rajabi said that with the high prices for rent in Jerusalem, he does not know where he and his family will go.
“People will live in the streets,” he said.
Rajabi’s home is surrounded by buildings that have raised large Israeli flags — a sign they are owned by settlers, who he said began buying homes in 2004, and have obtained about 40 buildings in Silwan now, many via forced evictions.
Settler group Ateret Cohanim had offered to buy him and other Palestinians out, he said, but most had refused.
He said he was among 32 families in the neighborhood who have now been ordered to leave, with him and his brothers given until the end of Ramadan — mid-March — to depart under an order from Israel’s Supreme Court that he showed Reuters.
“They want to force me out of the house I was born in, where my eyes first opened to life,” said Rajabi, explaining that his family had lived there since 1967 and bought the land from a Jordanian officer.
Daniel Luria, the executive director of Ateret Cohanim, called Palestinians in Silwan “illegal squatters,” saying the land was owned by Yemeni Jews before 1929 and that moving back was rectifying a historical injustice. Rajabi said that account was untrue.
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, for a future state and say that leaving their homes there could put an end to their hopes for ever. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the aim is to ‘bury’ the idea of a Palestinian state.
Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital — a status not recognized internationally — and has encouraged Jewish settlement of predominantly Palestinian areas. Settler incursions, sometimes violent, have ramped up since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 triggered the Gaza war.
Silwan is particularly contentious due to its proximity to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a longtime flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Rajabi said that Ateret Cohanim had offered him a blank check to leave, an offer he refused. “I wouldn’t sell them even a grain of soil. They told me, ‘Put whatever number you want and we’re ready to pay’,” he said.
He said that some people in the neighborhood had sold their homes, but that most families had refused.
Luria said that Ateret Cohanim had offered Silwan residents compensation for leaving. “This is part of an unfolding Zionist dream,” said Luria of the purchase of homes in Silwan.
Numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity, but successive Israeli governments have said settlements are critical to the country’s security. If Palestinians refuse orders to leave, armed police go in to evict them and diggers demolish their homes.
Rajabi said that with the high prices for rent in Jerusalem, he does not know where he and his family will go.
“People will live in the streets,” he said.
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