Israel's Change in Policy Regarding Attacks on Iranian Forces in Syria

On Monday, January 21, the spokesperson for the Israeli army emphasized in a series of tweets that the country has "begun attacking Quds Force targets of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syrian territory" and simultaneously warned the Syrian army against any efforts to harm Israelis or Israel's borders from Syrian soil. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Israel, has repeatedly stated that Israel is the only army in the world that is directly at war with Iran in Syria. He recently added that his country could also target Iran itself if it detects a "vital threat" from Iran. While Israel has typically left the responsibility for the past three years of attacks on "Iranian targets and Iran's allies in Syria" ambiguous, officials in the country confirmed a few days ago that this policy has effectively changed with the aim of "warning Iran." However, the security crisis related to Iran and Israel in Syrian territory underwent fundamental changes on Sunday afternoon, January 20, after a ground-to-ground missile was fired from Syrian territory towards Israel, shortly after an Israeli airstrike on Damascus airport. According to the spokesperson for the Israeli army, the country began its attacks on the Quds Force in Syria with the Sunday night strikes. Israel, which has usually conducted most of its attacks in Syria during the midnight hours, initiated a new round of attacks from Sunday afternoon, January 20, towards Damascus airport, while Benjamin Netanyahu was on a short trip to Africa. According to Israeli journalists accompanying Netanyahu on his Sunday trip to N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, he left a meeting with the country's president to respond to an emergency phone call from senior Israeli military commanders regarding the attack on Damascus; Netanyahu later wrote on social media that even when he is on a foreign mission, Israel's mission to strike enemy targets continues. Israel insists that the ground-to-ground missile fired from "the outskirts of Damascus" towards Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights is the reason for the direct attacks on the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria. While Israel claims that its missile defense system intercepted and neutralized the missile fired from Syria, it emphasizes that the Quds Force has "been planning for months to fire missiles from Syria at Israel." The Israeli military spokesperson stated in his tweets on Monday that Israel is "prepared for any scenario and will continue operations for as long as necessary to defend its citizens." This spokesperson released an aerial map of "Quds Force sites" at Damascus airport that Israel attacked from midnight on Sunday to early Monday, which included several ammunition depots, a target located at Damascus International Airport, an intelligence site, and a military training camp for Iranians in Damascus. The Israeli satellite company "ImageSat" released images last week of a target "affiliated with Iran" in Syrian territory that had apparently sustained significant damage in an Israeli airstrike two weeks prior; Iran did not respond to this, but after Netanyahu stated that Iranians should leave Syria as soon as possible, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, said Iran "will preserve everything it has in Syria." Iran has justified its presence in Syria over the years based on an invitation from the "legitimate Syrian government" and within the framework of advisory assistance, but the timing of the recent statements from the commander of the Iranian Air Force regarding the Islamic Republic's readiness for "the battle to eliminate Israel" seems to have stoked the flames of the new crisis between Israel and Iran. Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh, the commander of the Iranian Air Force, stated in remarks published on Monday by "Young Journalists Club" that the young generation and the next generation of Iran are "impatient and fully prepared for battle" with Israel to "eliminate them from the earth"... and "are learning the necessary knowledge for the day of reckoning and the destruction of Israel." Although it appears that some media evidence suggests that the Iranian Air Force commander's remarks were made on January 11 at the end of a military exercise in Isfahan province, their release just hours after the intensification of Israeli attacks on the Quds Force in Syria drew sensitivity from Israeli officials, prompting Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to immediately reference them. Yisrael Katz, Israel's Minister of Information, stated on Monday that the country is now "in direct and open battle with the Quds Force." Yuval Steinitz, the Minister of Energy and former head of the "Iran file" in the Israeli government, warned that Bashar al-Assad should know that if Iran acts against Israel from Syria, his own regime is also at risk. General Dr. Shimon Shapira, a former military officer and regional military history researcher, wrote on Monday that although Iran targeted Israel with 30 Grad and Fajr missiles in the spring of 2018, most of which fell in Syrian territory, this time the Quds Force is using more accurate missiles and used one of these precise missiles to target northern Israel on Sunday afternoon, which was intercepted. According to reserve General Shapira, Iran's daytime attack, knowing that hundreds of tourists were in the Golan area, shows that it is prepared to worsen the situation and accept the risks of confrontation with Israel.