Israel hits Syria's chemical weapons, sends troops over the border

Israel said it has struck chemical weapons stockpiles, and Israeli troops crossed into Syrian territory for the first time in 50 years after an Islamist rebel force seized the capital, Damascus, on Sunday and toppled President Bashar Assad.

Gideon Sa'ar, Israel's foreign minister, told reporters Israel attacked Syria's "strategic weapons systems," including stockpiles of chemical weapons and long-range missiles and rockets, "in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists."

The strikes came after the Syrian Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham made an extraordinary march from its base in the northwest and took Damascus in less than two weeks, sending Assad into reported exile in Russia.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would "destroy heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria, including surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets and coastal missiles."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said he had ordered troops from the Golan Heights into Syrian territory, where they seized positions abandoned by Syria's military "to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel," he said. (Golan was annexed by Israel and is considered by most of the world to be occupied Syrian territory.)

Netanyahu called the incursion a "temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found."

U.S. spy agencies are closely monitoring Syrian storage sites of chemical weapons to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, The New York Times reported.

Israel, Iran race to cement relations with Syrian rebels

The fall this weekend of the Assad regime, long backed by Iran and allied with its proxy forces in the region, represented a welcome development for Netanyahu.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel force and former al-Qaida affiliate, captured Damascus on Saturday night. It struck at a moment when Iran and other Assad allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, were weakened by more than a year of fighting with Israel.

More: From eye doctor to brutal dictator: The rise (and fall) of Syria's Bashar Assad

Both Israel and Iran are already racing to establish friendly relations with the rebel forces suddenly at Syria's helm.

"We send a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria," Netanyahu said. "We're going to follow events very carefully (so) that we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria."

Iran also is in contact with Syria's new leaders in the hopes of setting the grounds for a diplomatic relationship, Iranian officials told Reuters.

"The main concern for Iran is whether Assad's successor will push Syria away from Tehran's orbit," one official said. "That is a scenario Iran is keen to avoid."

Hezbollah forces, which maintained a steady presence in Syria to defend the Assad regime, began to withdraw over the past year as the group's conflict with Israel in Lebanon raged. Dozens of elite Hezbollah fighters fled Homs, Syria's third-largest city, as rebel forces approached.

Hassan Fadlallah, a member of Lebanon's parliament representing Hezbollah, called new developments in Syria "a major, dangerous and new transformation."

Iran and other Syrian allies weakened by war with Israel

Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip and wide swaths of Lebanon ever since Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis and exploding regional tensions. More than 43,000 Palestinians have died in the Gaza war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israeli forces last crossed onto Syrian territory during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel repelled Syrian forces from the Golan Heights.

Assad deployed chemical weapons throughout the country's 13-year civil war. In 2013, he deployed sarin nerve gas on parts of Damascus, killing more than 1,400 people.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel attacks Syria's chemical weapons, sends troops into buffer zone