Israeli strikes reported in central Syria on former regime’s military sites

Israeli jets targeted former Syrian army outposts in the central Homs province, two security sources told Reuters on Tuesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks on military infrastructure belonging to the ousted Assad regime, which fell to Islamist insurgents in December.

The jets bombed army fortifications in the villages of Shinshar and Shamsin south of Homs city in central Syria, the sources said.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, whose funding is unclear, “Israeli air strikes targeted a missile battalion” near Homs city, reporting explosions in the area with no immediate word of casualties.

The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on the alleged strikes.

The military did, however, acknowledge several drone strikes earlier on Tuesday on military infrastructure that it said posed a threat to Israel near the southern Syrian town of Khan Arnabeh.

The previous evening, the IDF had confirmed that it was carrying out a series of strikes on military targets in the Daraa area, targeting headquarters and other facilities used to store weapons and equipment belonging to the former Syrian regime. It said that it had identified attempts by unspecified groups to use those weapons.

Mourners lift placards during the funeral of three people killed in Israeli strikes a day earlier, in the southern town of Daraa on March 18, 2025. (Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

Israel has said it will continue to act against all threats in Syria as the country’s new regime grapples with consolidating power in the wake of the collapse of the decades-long rule of the Assad family.

While the collapse of the Assad regime brought an end to the country’s more than decade-long civil war, a renewed wave of sectarian violence sparked fears that the new government would not be able to effectively keep the peace in Syria.

Israeli leaders have consistently stated that they do not trust the country’s interim leader, former Islamist rebel fighter Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom Defense Minister Israel Katz has called an “extreme Islamic leader.”

Sharaa has dismissed Israel’s threats and Katz’s comments as “nonsense,” and his government has denounced Israel’s continued strikes in the country, as well as the IDF’s presence in a buffer zone in southern Syria.

The IDF describes its presence in the buffer zone, which was manned by UN peacekeepers until the Assad regime’s ouster in December, as a temporary and defensive measure, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that troops would remain there for “an unlimited period of time” to maintain Israel’s security.