At least seven Syrian civilians were killed, and several others injured when Israeli warplanes targeted the town of Koya, west of Syria’s southern governorate of Daraa, on Tuesday, March 25.
The airstrikes were reportedly launched after the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) carried out a land incursion that was confronted by a number of residents, who succeeded in preventing the IOF from infiltrating into the town.
Daraa’s governor’s office stated that “the attack has caused a state of panic among citizens as Israeli reconnaissance planes flew over the area.” The TV channel run by the new interim government, also reported that many residents fled Koya following the Israeli aerial attacks.
The attacks were preceded by airstrikes that targeted the Palmyra military airport and the nearby T-4 airbase in central Syria on Friday, March 21. The IOF described the targets in a statement as Syria’s “remaining strategic military capabilities.”
Widespread condemnation of the Israeli assault on Daraa
Syria
The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing “the ongoing Israeli aggression on Syrian territory, which saw a dangerous escalation in Koya town in Daraa.”
The ministry emphasized that the assault on Koya was the latest among a series of violations, which the IOF began by carrying out incursions into the Quneitra and Daraa governorates in southern Syria.
The ministry considered the Israeli ongoing assaults on Syria “a blatant violation of national sovereignty and international law.” It further called for “an international investigation into the offenses committed against innocents and into Israel’s violations.”
Furthermore, the aggression was condemned by Arab countries, including Jordan and Qatar in addition to the Arab League, the Arab Parliament and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Jordan
Jordan, which borders Syria from the south, reaffirmed its “rejection and condemnation of the ongoing Israeli attacks on Syria, which constitute a clear violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Israel and Syria. It also described the offensive as a “dangerous escalation” that “would increase tension in the region.”
Qatar
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the attack as a blatant “violation of international law”, warning that “the ongoing assaults by the occupation on Syria and Lebanon, alongside its continued brutal war on Gaza, threaten to escalate violence in the region.”
Qatar urged the international community “to exert pressure on the occupation to comply with international legitimacy resolutions.”
The Arab Parliament
For its part, the Arab Parliament stressed that “the continuation of such attacks without accountability, and amid the silence of the international community, encourages Israel to persist and escalate its violations.”
It also called on the United Nations Security Council and influential international actors “to fulfill their responsibilities by halting these violations and holding Israel accountable.”
The Arab League
Strongly denouncing the Israeli violation against Syria’s sovereignty, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Israel is “attempting to use the transitional period in Syria “to fuel sedition and conflict.”
Hamas
Hamas issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms” the Israeli assault on Koya calling it “such a fascist aggression” and a “war crime.”
The resistance movement also hailed “the brave Syrian people”, and their “heroic confrontation of the Israeli army that is trying to occupy their land.”
Israel’s massacres are part of an ethnic cleansing policy
The Israeli massacre, which left seven civilians killed in Daraa’s Koya, suggests that Israel is committed to carrying out attacks against people across the region regardless of the presence of resistance groups in the targeted areas or not.
Israel has massacred over 50,000 Palestinians in the Gaza strip in a year and a half, and over 4,000 in Lebanon since October 2023 until the ceasefire with Hezbollah came into effect in November 2024.
Israel’s pretext for the mass killing of those people, the majority of whom are civilians, was eradicating Hamas and Hezbollah, which are accused by Israel and the US of being “proxies of Iran”.
Now, as Israel persistently kills civilians across Syria without the presence of the so-called “Iran-linked” groups, the falsity of its claims continues to unfold, foreshadowing a dangerous phase for the peoples of the region.
Massacring the Indigenous people of the lands Israel occupies may be part of a systematic ethnic cleansing policy aimed at advancing the “Greater Israel” project.
