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DAMASCUS: Syria slammed Israeli attacks as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty after deadly bombardment Tuesday in the country’s south, where Israel’s military said it had responded to incoming fire.
The violence near the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights followed Israeli air strikes in central Syria, the latest in a string of attacks on military sites since militants overthrew longtime president Bashar Assad.
The Syrian foreign ministry in a statement condemned “the continued Israeli aggression on Syrian territory, which saw a dangerous escalation in the village of Kuwayya” in the southern Daraa province.
It said “heavy artillery and air bombardment targeted residential and farming areas, leading to the death of six civilians,” raising an earlier toll provided by local authorities.
“This escalation comes in the context of a series of violations that started with Israeli forces’ penetrating into Quneitra and Daraa provinces, in an ongoing aggression on Syrian territory, in flagrant violation of national sovereignty and international law,” the ministry said.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said that its troops “identified several terrorists who opened fire toward them in southern Syria,” without providing a specific location.
“The troops returned fire in response and the IAF (air force) struck the terrorists,” it added in a statement.
Daraa governor Anwar Al-Zoabi said in a statement that “Israeli occupation army violations and repeated attacks on Syrian territory pushed a group of residents to clash with a military force that tried to penetrate” Kuwayya, northwest of Daraa city.
The situation “led to an escalation” by Israeli forces “with artillery shelling and drone bombardment,” said the statement posted on Telegram.
Provincial authorities said some 350 families had fled to shelters in a nearby village.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor that relies on a network of sources inside Syria, has reported near-daily Israeli military incursions into southern Syria beyond the demarcation line in recent months.
The foreign ministry in neighboring Jordan condemned Tuesday’s incursion and bombardment as “a dangerous escalation” that risked fueling “further conflict and tension in the region.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry in a statement also slammed the attack, calling it “a brazen violation of international law.”
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites since Assad’s fall in December, saying it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers extremists.
On Tuesday the Israeli military said it had “struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian military bases of Tadmur and T4,” referring to a base in Palmyra and another 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the city.
On Friday, the military carried out strikes on the same bases.
Israel has also deployed troops to the Golan Heights buffer zone, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria, which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan.
United Nations special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Tuesday that he was “concerned by Israeli statements on the intention to stay in Syria” and demands for the full demilitarization of the south.
At an Arab summit in Cairo in early March, Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa called on the international community to pressure Israel to “immediately” withdraw its troops from southern Syria, calling it a “direct threat” to peace in the region.