Israel strikes near Damascus as report confirms Israeli ties with Syria fighters

The Syrian government accused Israel of launching a series of airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday, as a UN report documented strong ties between Israel and militant groups fighting in Syria.

“This afternoon, the Israeli enemy targeted two safe areas in Damascus province, namely the al-Dimas area and the outskirts of Damascus International Airport, in Damascus countryside” the general command of the Syrian army said in a statement.

It said the strikes caused material damage to institutions in the area.

Both civilian and military aircraft operate at the airport, which lies southeast of Damascus near flashpoint areas including eastern Ghouta, large parts of which are in rebel hands.

A resident in the Damascus suburb of Qudsaya, close to al-Dimas, said the agricultural airport in al-Dimas was hit.

Al-Dimas is in a mountainous area to the northwest of the capital which is under government control and close to several military installations.

“We are not responding to it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahson told Anadolu news agency by phone, adding that the ministry was aware of news about the airstrikes in Syria.

An Israeli army spokesman also said he would not comment on the “foreign reports,” but the Syrian army reiterated its claim that the Zionist state is helping rebels fighting against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“This direct aggression by Israel was carried out to help the terrorists in Syria, after our armed forces secured important victories in Deir Ezzor, Aleppo and elsewhere,” the Syrian army command said.

Sunday’s air raids proved “Israel’s direct support for terrorism in Syria,” it said.

Moreover, the Syrian foreign ministry sent two identical letters to the UN Secretary General and Chairman of the UN Security Council on the Israeli aggression on the Syrian soil, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The ministry said it had asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel, describing the strikes as “a heinous crime against Syria’s sovereignty.”

The ministry described the airstrikes as a distraction from the internal disputes in Israel after the collapse of the Israeli coalition government, and from Israel’s continuous violations of international law and UN resolution in occupied Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, Israeli opposition figures accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of inaugurating his electoral campaign by bombing Damascus, adding that he is seeking to set the Middle East ablaze to guarantee his victory in the upcoming elections, Israeli media reported.

Israel’s Channel 2 quoted lawmaker Yifat Kariv of the centrist Yesh Atid party as saying that Netanyahu did not succeed in forming an alternative coalition to the one he dissolved last week, so he decided to put the Middle East on fire to inaugurate his electoral campaign.

Moreover, MK Issawi Frej of the leftist Meretz party said that Netanyahu always tries to blame his failure on foreign issues. Frej said that Netanyahu would blame Iran when asked about his performance in government and the rising cost of living, and blame Hamas when asked about the health care system.

Lawmaker Moshe Mizrahi of the center-left Labor Party, for his part, said that issues tend to overlap before elections.

In response, sources close to Netanyahu have described the opposition’s statements as “rude,” Channel 2 said.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu called for holding early elections, citing difficulties leading the state with his current government.

The move came after Netanyahu dismissed two leading members of his cabinet – Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid – prompting the collapse of his coalition government.

In the past year, Israel has reportedly carried out a number of raids allegedly targeting key Syrian targets and positions of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, an ally of both Syria and Iran.

In March, Israeli warplanes attacked Syrian army positions just hours after a bomb wounded four Israeli soldiers on the Golan.

UN urges Israel to respect Golan resolutions

Meanwhile, observers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) confirmed in a report documenting cooperation and coordination between the Israeli army and militant groups in Syria.

The report, made public by SANA on Sunday, revealed ongoing communication between armed groups’ leaders and Israeli army officers, saying that “59 meetings took place from March 2013 to May, and that during this same period 89 injured militants were transported to Israeli hospitals, and 19 of them were returned to Syria along with two bodies.”

The UNDOF report also said that observers witnessed several meetings between rebel leaders and Israeli army forces between December 2013 and March 2014, in addition to witnessing the transportation of injured militants to Israeli hospitals following confrontations between the militants and the Syrian army near the occupied Golan border.

Damascus has repeatedly accused so-called “rebel groups” such Syria’s al-Qaeda branch, al-Nusra Front, who are active in the southern Quneitra countryside, of working hand in glove with Israel, from which they allegedly receive logistic support.

In October, an exposé by Israeli political commentator Ehud Yaari confirmed an existing relationship between the two sides.

The Israeli writer also spoke about an “undeclared truce” between Israel and Nusra, which so far has not engaged in any clashes with the Israeli army.

On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of urging Israel to abide to Security Council resolution 497 (1981), in which the Council decided that Israel’s imposition of its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Golan Heights were null and void and without international legal effect. It also called on Israel to halt changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan.

Aleppo ceasefire talks

Sunday’s violence came as the UN envoy to Syria announced he would meet in Turkey with rebel leaders from Aleppo to discuss a possible freeze in fighting.

Staffan de Mistura “will travel very soon to Gaziantep (in Turkey) to discuss his plan with key rebel groups from Aleppo,” his spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP.

She did not specify when exactly the talks would take place.

De Mistura has been pushing efforts for ceasefires in limited areas of Syria to lay the groundwork for peace talks to resolve the country’s devastating armed crisis.

Speaking to AFP from Turkey, rebel leader Sobhi al-Rifai said “we are ready for a meeting and for dialogue with anyone to discuss the Syrian issue.”

But Rifai, who is part of major rebel umbrella organization the Revolutionary Command Council, did not confirm whether his group or any other faction would meet the UN envoy.

De Mistura announced his plan to press for what he called a “freeze” in fighting in late October, after years of failed efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

Assad previously said he is willing to discuss the plan and Aleppo, which has been divided into rebel- and regime-held territory since July 2012, has been cited as a possible starting point.

Ahead of the talks in Gaziantep, de Mistura was in Istanbul on Sunday and met with Saudi-based businessman Hadi al-Bahra, leader of the Turkey-based opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), according to the envoy’s spokeswoman.

Syrian refugees’ numbers on the rise

Meanwhile, more than 30 humanitarian organizations launched an appeal on Monday for countries to take in around 180,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict.

That figure would represent five percent of the projected refugee population by the end of 2015, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Wealthy nations have so far accepted to take in only 1.7 percent of Syrian refugees, while the heavy burden lies on Syria’s neighbors, namely Lebanon which hosts over 1 million registered refugee to date.

The issue will be discussed at a conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

After three years of fighting in Syria, more than 3.2 million refugees are registered in neighboring countries and with little sign of the conflict coming to an end, the UNHCR believes the number could rise to nearly 3.6 million by the end of 2015.

If countries would take in 180,000 refugees, and an accompanying aid package and economic support was provided to the nations that open their doors, “it would also encourage those countries to keep their borders open to ensure those in Syria can flee the conflict, and could contribute to their stability,” the UNHCR said.

“Syria’s neighboring countries have shown incredible generosity over the last three and a half years, but the strain of the crisis is weighing heavily on infrastructure and public services,” the agency said.

The UN refugee agency called on countries which have not accepted any refugees so far, such as the Gulf states and Latin American countries, to do their bit.

(AFP, Reuters, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)