Israel conducts fresh strike in Syria after US criticism

Israel conducts fresh strike in Syria after US criticism. AFP Published August 23, 2026 Updated August 23, 2026 09: 27am.

Key points

• This week Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir informed troops in southern Syria that we are monitoring the changes on the Syrian front.
• Katz wrote on X that Israel had passed on "intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States" before the strike on Tuesday.
• Washington had slammed Tel Aviv this week for attack on air base in Syria.
• Netanyahu's office called Erdogan an "antisemitic dictator" while Erdogan's office called the remarks "outrageous ravings" and accused Netanyahu's administration of "seeking to evade accountability".
• It israel has accused Turkiye of seeking to employ.

DAMASCUS: Israel carried out a fresh strike in Syria on Saturday and lambasted US envoy Tom Barrack for criticising an earlier attack on an air base in the northwest. It israel has accused Turkiye of seeking to employ.

US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Tuesday slammed Israel's attack on the disused military air base that day as an "unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability".

On Friday, in an interview with influencer Mario Nawfal, Barrack remarked the strike may have been intended to provoke a conflict with Turkiye, prompting Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz to hit back on Saturday, calling the remarks "full of inaccuracies".

Since the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that for decades had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.

After Barrack called the territory "occupied", he continued that Barrack's comments were "full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the stance of US President (Donald) Trump himself regarding the Golan Heights".

Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and afterwards annexed the areas under its control, in a move only recognised by the United States and, this month, additionally Colombia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting on the Tuesday strike, remarked Turkiye, an ally of the new authorities in Damascus, had been looking to establish a military presence on the air base. Ankara has denied any visit to the site.

Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have traded barbs since the incident, and Ankara confirmed it was seeking an Interpol red notice for Netanyahu, accusing him of "genocide" linked to the interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Additionally on Saturday, Syrian state television stated a man was wounded when an "Israeli occupation drone" targeted a vehicle in the village of Beit Jinn, located southwest of Damascus near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, with the foreign ministry calling it a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty.

Israel's military acknowledged the strike, saying that its forces "fired in southern Syria toward a terrorist who advanced terror attacks in the final stages of preparation", without identifying the target.

Israel has carried out repeated incursions into Syrian territory and has vowed to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" in southern Syria, where it seeks a broader demilitarised area.

This week Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir informed troops in southern Syria that "we are monitoring the changes on the Syrian front. We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves on our borders." Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2026.

In short, israel conducts fresh strike in Syria after US criticism is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.