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Damascus Threatens to Strike Tel Aviv Airport in Retaliation to Israeli Strikes

What is believed to be guided missiles are seen in the sky during in an attack in Damascus, Syria, January 21, 2019. (Reuters)
What is believed to be guided missiles are seen in the sky during in an attack in Damascus, Syria, January 21, 2019. (Reuters)
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Damascus Threatens to Strike Tel Aviv Airport in Retaliation to Israeli Strikes

What is believed to be guided missiles are seen in the sky during in an attack in Damascus, Syria, January 21, 2019. (Reuters)
What is believed to be guided missiles are seen in the sky during in an attack in Damascus, Syria, January 21, 2019. (Reuters)

The Syrian regime’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, warned Tuesday that Damascus could attack Tel Aviv’s airport in retaliation to Israeli strikes against Syria.

He told a Security Council briefing on the Middle East: “If the council does not take measures to stop repeated Israeli assaults against Syrian territories, then Syria will practice its legitimate right of self-defense and respond to the aggression against Damascus International Airport in kind by attacking Tel Aviv airport.”

Moreover, he criticized a report by Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for deliberately ignoring daily Israeli crimes against residents of the occupied Golan Heights.

“Isn’t it time that the Security Council take the necessary measures to stop the repeated Israeli attacks against Syria?” he asked.

These attacks would not have taken place had the council implemented its resolutions and had member states not shown unlimited support for Israel, which has only encouraged its criminality, said Jaafari.

Israel has carried out several attacks against Iranian and Hezbollah targets since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

Israel struck in Syria early on Monday, the latest salvo in its increasingly open assault on Iran’s presence there, shaking the night sky over Damascus with an hour of loud explosions in a second consecutive night of military action.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the air raid had mostly targeted Iranian forces, but also hit Syrians helping them. “We will strike at anyone who tries to harm us,” he said.

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Far-Right Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound

Palestinians attend Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations by the Dome of the Rock shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians attend Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations by the Dome of the Rock shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP)
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Far-Right Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound

Palestinians attend Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations by the Dome of the Rock shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians attend Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations by the Dome of the Rock shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP)

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, his spokesperson said, prompting strong condemnation from Jordan and Palestinian group Hamas.

The firebrand politician was visiting the site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, in occupied east Jerusalem after returning to the Israeli government last month following the resumption of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Ben-Gvir had quit the cabinet in January in protest at the ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian territory.

Since the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at the end of 2022, Ben-Gvir has made several trips to the Al-Aqsa compound, each time triggering international outcry.

In a statement, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned Wednesday’s visit as a “storming” and “an unacceptable provocation.”

Hamas called it a “provocative and dangerous escalation,” saying the visit was “part of the ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people.”

“We call on our Palestinian people and our youth in the West Bank to escalate their confrontation... in defense of our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it said in a statement.

The site is Islam’s third-holiest and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.

Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.

Ben-Gvir’s spokesperson told AFP the minister “went there because the site was opened (for non-Muslims) after 13 days,” during which access was reserved for Muslims for the festival of Eid al-Fitr and the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In recent years, growing numbers of Jewish ultranationalists have defied the rules, including Ben-Gvir, who publicly prayed there in 2023 and 2024.

The Israeli government has said repeatedly that it intends to uphold the status quo at the compound but Palestinian fears about its future have made it a flashpoint for violence.