Gaza is at present seeing a strong war between Israel and Hamas where, on 22nd October, warplanes by Israel struck some areas of Gaza along with two Syrian airports. Two weeks before this incident, Hamas struck Israel. This was seen as the biggest attack on Israel since the year 1948 when the state was founded.
Now, the matter that has puzzled many is the reason behind the attack on the Syrian airports. Why did Israel attack the Syrian airports? Before delving into that, it is important to know some background of the relations between Israel and Syria.
Israel-Syria Relations
Israel has not been vocal about its reason for attacking the Syrian airports till now. However, previously, Israel did mention the need to stop another front of the rivalry from starting towards its north. The belief is that the strikes are associated with attacking Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant organization that is backed by Iran. The organization has warned to start a front of attacks towards Israel's north. Syria and Lebanon are situated in the north of Israel. In the past few weeks, Hezbollah and Israel have been shooting at each other, however, Hezbollah is not a part of the war.
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Digging deeper into the history, Hezbollah was formed in the year 1982. Ever since its inception, it has been constantly opposing Israel and the influence of the West in the region of West Asia. Along with Iran and Russia, Hezbollah has showcased support for President Bashar al-Assad's regime in neighboring Syria at the time of its civil war.
Hezbollah is actually a Shiite organization supported by Iran. Iran supplies millions of dollars of funds to Hezbollah, as estimated by the United States. Moreover, it is also estimated that Hezbollah has thousands of fighters.
Talking about the relations between Syria and Iran, the former has always supported the latter. Syria sees the presence of Israel to be against the interests of Arabs and Palestinians. The war between Syria and Israel is not something new; the world has seen a war between the two at the time of the Six-Day War of 1967.
Are Hezbollah and Syria allies? That is tough to say. What is common in both countries is their opposition to the Western Influences and Israel. However, the two have also had their own set of conflicting interests in the past. After the end of the Lebanese Civil War in the year 1990, the Syrian group's presence in Lebanon was something that Hezbollah had to accept. Assad, the President of Syria was obliged to accept the Syrian Shia militias of Iran and Hezbollah in the country.
Coming back to the current conflict
The airstrikes by Israel have attacked the international airports in Damascus, the capital of Syria along with Aleppo. The effect of the strike was that the runways got so damaged that they had to be kept out of service. Additionally, one person was killed due to the strikes.
Several strikes have been carried out in Syria by Israel since the commencement of the war. Hezbollah stated that some of its fighters were killed on Saturday in Lebanon. Sheikh Naim Kassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah has threatened that if Israel starts a ground offensive in Gaza, it would be paying a high price.
Hezbollah had earlier expressed through a statement that it fired at Israeli positions in Chebaa Farms located within Golan Heights with a huge number of shells and rockets. It also announced the group's support of the "Palestinian resistance."
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The threats
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel said to the troops in Israel that in case Hezbollah goes forward with a war against Israel, “it will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating.”
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