JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it killed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s liaison with the Syrian army in an air strike on Damascus on Tuesday as a fragile six-day-old ceasefire stutters.
“The (Israeli Air Force) conducted an intelligence-based strike in Damascus targeting Hezbollah’s representative to the Syrian military, Salman Nemer Jomaa,” the military said, adding he played a key role in weapons deliveries between Syria and the militant group.
“As part of his duties, Jomaa was responsible for coordination between Hezbollah agents and the Syrian army, including to support the smuggling of weapons between Syria and Hezbollah,” it added.
Syrian state news agency SANA had reported an Israeli strike on a car on the road to Damascus’s international airport, while a war monitor reported one person killed.
“A car exploded after it was targeted in an Israeli aggression on the road to Damascus International Airport,” SANA reported, citing a police source.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the car was targeted by an Israeli drone.
“A man who was inside was killed and another was injured,” said the Observatory, without providing details of their identities.
The strike occurred near a military airfield, added the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Since Syria’s war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel rarely comments on such strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The strike on Damascus came amid mutual accusations between Israel and Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire that came into effect in Lebanon on November 27.
Israel says killed Hezbollah liaison with Syria army in Damascus strike
https://arab.news/mwyhc
Israel says killed Hezbollah liaison with Syria army in Damascus strike
- “The (Israeli Air Force) conducted an intelligence-based strike in Damascus targeting Hezbollah’s representative to the Syrian military, Salman Nemer Jomaa,” the military said
- “Jomaa was responsible for coordination between Hezbollah agents and the Syrian army“hezbolla
Israel defense minister vows to stay in Gaza, establish outposts
- His remarks, reported across Israeli media, come as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday vowed Israel will remain in Gaza and pledged to establish outposts in the north of the Palestinian territory, according to a video of a speech published by Israeli media.
His remarks, reported across Israeli media, come as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza.
Mediators are pressing for the implementation of the next phases of the truce, which would involve an Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
Speaking at an event in the Israeli settlement of Beit El in the occupied West Bank, Katz said: “We are deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave Gaza — there will be no such thing.”
“We are there to protect, to prevent what happened (from happening again),” he added, according to a video published by Israeli news site Ynet.
Katz also vowed to establish outposts in the north of Gaza in place of settlements that had been evacuated during Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the territory in 2005.
“When the time comes, God willing, we will establish in northern Gaza, Nahal outposts in place of the communities that were uprooted,” Katz said, referring to military-agricultural settlements set up by Israeli soldiers.
“We will do this in the right way and at the appropriate time.”
Katz’s remarks were slammed by former minister and chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who accused the government of “acting against the broad national consensus, during a critical period for Israel’s national security.”
“While the government votes with one hand in favor of the Trump plan, with the other hand it sells fables about isolated settlement nuclei in the (Gaza) Strip,” he wrote on X, referring to the Gaza peace plan brokered by US President Donald Trump.
The next phases of Trump’s plan would involve an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of an interim authority to govern the territory in place of Hamas and the deployment of an international stabilization force.
It also envisages the demilitarization of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas, which the group has refused.
On Thursday, several Israelis entered the Gaza Strip in defiance of army orders and held a symbolic flag-raising ceremony to call for the reoccupation and resettlement of the Palestinian territory.
