"Our problem is not with Israel. We don't want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel's security," Damascus Governor Maher Marwan tells NPR. Syria and Israel have never had diplomatic ties.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) head Hamid Al-Shatri, in Damascus, Syria December 26, 2024 (credit: Hayat Tahrir Al-S

Ankara's growing military presence in Syria has led to a diplomatic clash between former allies Israel and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has supported Hamas, even hinting at some sort of armed intervention.

Israel’s foreign minister expressed “moral and diplomatic” support for Kurds in Syria and urged the international community to do the same, in an interview published on Saturday.

Israeli fighter jets have launched hundreds of airstrikes, while soldiers have seized a buffer zone and captured military posts in territory formerly under Syrian control.

The Israeli military hit weapons depots and air defenses, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel has said it aims to keep military equipment away from extremists.

Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

Jolani, urged Israel to stop airstrikes after a bomb so powerful it reportedly measured on the Richter scale was dropped on Syria

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tice's mother his country won't conduct airstrikes near a secret prison outside Damascus.

Israel said it had wiped out the vast majority of the Syrian military's assets, including huge chunks of its air-defense network.

The newly appointed head of intelligence services in Syria said the country's security institution will be restructured after all current security entities are dissolved, the state news agency reported on Saturday.