IDF says it carried out airstrike on Hamas arms depot near Damascus

Military says weapons at facility in town outside Syrian capital were intended to be used in attacks on Israeli forces

By Emanuel Fabian 8 February 2025, 5:59 pm Edit

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

A Hamas weapon depot near Damascus, Syria, targeted by the IDF on February 8, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
A Hamas weapon depot near Damascus, Syria, targeted by the IDF on February 8, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck a weapons depot belonging to the Hamas terror group near the Syrian town of Deir Ali, south of the capital Damascus, on Saturday afternoon, the Israeli military said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the weapons stored at the Hamas site were going to be used in attacks on Israeli troops.

“The Palestinian terror organizations, chief among them Hamas, exploit Syria to establish terror activity under Iranian guidance,” the IDF said, adding that it would operate against Hamas anywhere the terror group tried to establish itself.

The IDF published footage of the strike.

Syrian radio station Sham FM reported that there was no information on casualties in the strike.

Hamas is believed to still have some presence in Syria, even after the fall in December of the Bashar al-Assad regime, with which it was closely aligned.

Israeli airstrikes in Syria have become somewhat rare since Assad was toppled.

As the regime collapsed, the IDF carried out a historic 48-hour bombing campaign, destroying the vast majority of the Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements.

Israeli forces also deployed to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria — on the Syrian side — following the fall of the Assad regime.

The IDF has described the move as a temporary measure designed to prevent hostile actors from utilizing the power vacuum and taking over the strategic territory to threaten Israel, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said troops will remain there indefinitely.

Israel conquered most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, ahead of which several Arab armies had planned an invasion of Israel. Jerusalem annexed the area in 1981, in a move only recognized by the United States. The buffer zone was intended to keep Israeli and Syrian forces apart.

Forces loyal to Assad’s government had abandoned their positions in southern Syria before rebel groups even reached Damascus, leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say there was a “vacuum on Israel’s border.”

The United Nations considers Israel’s takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord. Israel says the accord had fallen apart since one of the sides to it was no longer in a position to implement it.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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