Israel confirms striking Syrian air base, saying Turkey was planning to deploy forces
Times of Israel · LC · trust 48/100
Israel confirmed late Tuesday that it was behind overnight airstrikes against a Syrian military airport , where it claimed Turkey was planning to deploy forces.
“Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in an English-language statement.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Israel “repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security.”
“Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Israel “will not tolerate threats to its security, and would welcome a return to the status quo.”
In response, Ankara decried “the frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office,” according to a Turkish government statement quoted by the Anadolu state news agency, saying they “aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
An unnamed Turkish official also denied to Axios that Ankara was seeking to establish a military presence at the Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province.
“There was no Turkish presence at the airbase. Israel is inventing pretexts to bomb neighboring countries and destabilize the region,” the official asserted.
The attack marked extraordinary defiance by Israel of the United States, which has sought to support Syria’s new government led by a former jihadist allied with Turkey. US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack criticized the strikes as an “unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”
An Israeli security source cited by the Kan public broadcaster said Israel had intelligence it shared with the US on Turkish efforts to deploy troops at the base, and that the strikes were only carried out after attempts to dialogue with Syria failed. The report did not specify how the US responded to the Israeli intelligence.
Barrack, a business friend of US President Donald Trump who is also ambassador to Turkey, later said the United States was working to establish a deconfliction mechanism among Israel, Turkey and Syria.
According to Barrack, Turkey was not warned about the Israeli strikes, “and consequently observed the aircraft heading north toward its territory and therefore could have reasonably prepared its own response,” referring to possible Turkish military reaction.
“Thankfully, calm heads were able to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,” Barrack told Reuters in a phone interview.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and signed a mutual defense pact this month with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, has become one of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s main allies.
Ankara has been training Syria’s army, helping it rebuild state institutions and infrastructure and providing military and diplomatic support.
Israel’s strikes on the Syrian airbase “reflected a perception — whether accurate or misplaced — that Türkiye might in the near future increase its presence at that base,” Barrack said, using the Turkish name for Turkey.
“This underscores the need for a deconfliction mechanism involving Israel, Syria and Türkiye. That is something we are actively working on to establish in order to prevent future miscommunication,” he said. “The priority now is to lower tensions and allow space for a more measured approach.”
The airbase, about 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) east of the Turkish border, has been out of service as a dedicated military airfield since 2013 and changed hands several times during Syria’s 14-year civil war between forces loyal to former president Bashar al-Assad and opposition factions.
Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya television, citing a military source, said on Tuesday that Israel carried out eight airstrikes on the base’s runway and storage facilities. A separate military source and a civilian who lives near the base said there were no casualties.
Israel has for years struck targets in Syria to curb what it says is Iranian influence and to prevent weapons from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Since Assad’s overthrow in 2024, it has also viewed Syria’s new rulers with suspicion and continued military operations in the country, most recently attacking government sites in southern and central Syria in March.
Syria and Israel have held several rounds of de-escalation and border discussions since rebel forces under Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s command toppled Assad, but no agreement has been reached.
“An incident of the kind that occurred this morning demonstrates the need to intensify these efforts and expand the process,” Barrack said.
The envoy said the US already facilitates an information-sharing and dialogue mechanism among the parties.
“What is required is a more robust architecture with greater resources committed to it. Investing in such mechanisms is far less costly than relying on kinetic means of communication that can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said, referring to military force.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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