DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Air Force struck what the military said were artillery cannons in the Khan Arnabeh area of southern Syria on Tuesday.
In a statement, the military said the artillery "posed a threat to Israel" and vowed to continue airstrikes against weapons in southern Syria and other targets it perceives as "a military threat."
The strike was the latest in a series of Israeli airstrikes in recent months, following the deployment of Israeli troops into the United Nations-monitored buffer zone within Syria and their seizure of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon in the occupied Golan Heights.
Syria's interim foreign affairs authority on Tuesday strongly condemned Israel's recent airstrikes on the southern province of Daraa, which it said killed two people and injured 19 others.
In a statement, the authority denounced the strikes as a "flagrant aggression" and part of a broader campaign to destabilize the country.
"These deliberate attacks reveal Israel's complete disregard for international legal norms and agreements, under false pretexts that have lost all credibility," the statement read.
The authority urged the United Nations and the international community to take immediate action against Israel's military operations in Syria, warning that continued inaction could embolden further violations of international law.
Following the downfall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel destroyed almost all installation and equipment of the previous Syrian army and continued to pound any possible military formation in southern Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that his country would not tolerate military presence in southern Syria and the southern countryside of Damascus, a demand completely rejected by the new interim government in Syria. ■
