TEHRAN – After a brutal week marked by fatal clashes and escalating tensions, a temporary ceasefire appears to be taking place in southern Syria. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the armistice on Saturday, but the fundamental reality of earth revealed a much deeper and more troubling story.
The clash that erupted in Sweida on July 13th had connections with armed Druze groups and Bedouins. Under the guise of protecting Druze minorities, Israel launched a series of offensive and unprovoked strikes in southern Syria, targeting the capital Damascus on Wednesday. The UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR) reports that the number of deaths from violence has tragically surpassed 1,000.
This incredible human cost makes it very clear to Israel’s unrelenting warmth and expansionist ambitions in West Asia. Since the devastating attack on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has escalated its violence campaign, targeting not only Gaza but Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. These military actions are part of a calculated strategy to impose Israeli rule and destabilize the entire country.
Israel justifies the attack with handy narratives, including defending Syrian Druze minority, neutralising Hezbollah in Lebanon, dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, and responding to attacks from Yemen’s Ansarrah. However, these explanations act as thin veils that mask patterns of aggressive intervention that violate sovereignty and inflamed local tensions.
Despite the high death toll and widespread suffering, Israeli military ventures have failed to achieve their stated goals. In Gaza, Israel has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, but Hamas is resilient. In Lebanon, Lebanon’s resistance refuses to succumb to Israeli pressure. Iran has hit Israel hard in the recent conflict, and Yemen’s Ansarla movement continues to cling to Israeli invasion.
Israel’s recent strikes in Syria follow the same offensive pattern. They aim to fragment Syria and expand Israel’s territory, expanding dangerous trends since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad government in December last year. The Syrian government under Ahmed al-Sharaa has so far been withheld direct military conflict, but public outrage over Israeli occupation has skyrocketed. History shows that Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in the early 1980s caused widespread resistance and ultimately costly conflicts for the occupying forces. Today’s Syrians are increasingly prepared to form resistance groups and confront Israeli invasions.
While the Syrian government has been limited primarily to condemning Israeli attacks in statements, the rise in anti-Israel sentiment among the Syrian population has allowed it to open a new front of resistance. This serves as a harsh reminder that occupation and aggression are merely sowing the seeds of conflict and instability.
The world must recognize that Israel’s unidentified military attacks are not about defense, but rather deliberate policies of domination, suffering and division. Ongoing violence in southern Syria is a tragic symptom of this larger and more dangerous strategy, putting peace at stake throughout the region.