Israeli Military Acknowledges It Has Conducted Airstrikes Against Over 200 Iranian Targets Since 2017

IDF says it has bombed over 200 Iranian targets in Syria since 2017

The Israeli military on Tuesday acknowledged that it has conducted airstrikes against over 200 Iranian targets in Syria since 2017, shedding light on its largely unacknowledged activities across the border to prevent Tehran from establishing a permanent military presence in the war-torn country.

In a wide-ranging briefing to reporters ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, senior officers from the Israel Defense Forces also warned of the potentially dire consequences of the American government’s decision to cut off all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinians, saying the move would worsen the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.

The military warned that this development, along with internal Palestinian conflicts, are threatening the efforts to reach a long-term ceasefire with the Gaza-ruling Hamas terrorist group and are increasing the likelihood of another war in the coastal enclave.

In Syria, Israel has for years been concerned that Iran was using opportunities presented by the Syrian civil war to entrench itself militarily in the country in order to further threaten the Jewish state — alongside the threat already posed by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

Israel has vowed to prevent such a military presence, but officially remains mum on most of the military’s efforts to do so.

However, acknowledged that the air force had conducted strikes against 202 targets in Syria, using some 800 bombs and missiles to do so.

The 202 targets hit in the Israeli airstrikes since 2017 were mostly shipments of advanced weaponry, as well as military bases and infrastructure, which the IDF officials said drove Iranian forces to abandon some posts.

Israel does not acknowledge individual strikes in Syria, though Syrian officials, eyewitnesses and others regularly report on Israeli bombings on facilities in the country connected to the regime’s coalition. On Tuesday, Israel was accused of carrying out fresh strikes in the Hama area, two days after reports of an IDF attack on a base near Damascus.

The officers in the briefing did not elaborate on the nature of the strikes or how many of these had been previously acknowledged by Israel, specifically in its Operation House of Cards, an effort to destroy Iranian weapons sites earlier this year.

The IDF also noted its significant assistance in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East. The radical Islamist organization, which once controlled large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, has all but been defeated in the field, the officers said, but warned that the group’s dangerous ideology remains a threat.