Israel strikes Syria after projectiles fired, holds Sharaa responsible

CAIRO - Israel has carried out its first air strikes in Syria in nearly a month, saying it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles on June 3 towards Israel and holding interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible.

Damascus said Israeli strikes caused “heavy human and material losses”, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party and stressing the need to end the presence of armed groups and establish state control in the south.

Israel had not struck Syria since early May – a month marked by US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Mr Sharaa, the lifting of US sanctions, and direct Syrian-Israeli contacts to calm tensions, as reported by Reuters last week.

Describing its new rulers as jihadists, Israel has bombed Syria frequently in 2025.

Israel has also moved troops into areas of the south-west, where it has said it will not allow the new government’s security forces to ­deploy.

The projectiles Israel reported fired from Syria were the first since long-time Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

The Israeli military said the two projectiles fell in open areas.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had said earlier that he held Syrian President Sharaa responsible for the two projectile launches.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that reports of the launches towards Israel had not been verified yet. The ministry reiterated that Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region, the state news agency Sana reported.

“We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilise the region to achieve their own interests,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry added.

A Syrian official told Reuters such parties included “remnants of Assad-era militias linked to Iran, which have long been active in the Quneitra area”, and have “a vested interest in provoking Israeli retaliation as a means of escalating tensions and undermining current stabilisation efforts”.

Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades”, an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader, who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

Reuters could not independently verify the statement.

The Syrian state news agency and security sources reported Israeli strikes targeting sites in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra and Daraa provinces.

Local residents said Israeli mortars were striking the Wadi Yarmouk area, west of Daraa province, near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The area has witnessed increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli military incursions into nearby villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops.

An Israeli strike also hit a former Syrian army base near the city of Izraa, a Syrian source said.

Israel has said its goals in Syria include protecting the Druze, a religious minority with followers in both countries.

It also has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and taken more territory in the aftermath of

Mr Assad’s ouster

in December, citing lingering concerns over the extremist past of the country’s new rulers.

The newly appointed US envoy to Syria said last week he believed peace between Syria and Israel was achievable.

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel’s Jaffa with a ballistic missile.

The group says it has been launching attacks against Israel in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza. REUTERS