Israeli Media Speaks about ‘Syria’s Dangerous Game’

Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights (AFP)
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Israeli Media Speaks about ‘Syria’s Dangerous Game’

Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights (AFP)

The Syrian regime is working toward normalization in the region in recent months while it doesn’t rein in dangerous terrorist and militant groups, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

“The fact that rockets were fired from Syria, on the evening of April 8 and 9, as well as a drone launched from Syria on April 1 targeting Israel, illustrates that the regime is seeking normalization while it doesn’t rein in dangerous terrorist and militant groups,” the newspaper wrote.

The Jerusalem Post report said the importance of the rocket fire goes beyond just the rockets themselves or any response.

The Syrian regime appears to have allowed terrorist groups to continue to operate openly and threaten others and it has tolerated various Iranian-backed groups for years because those groups aided Syria in its civil war, it said.

What is new according to the paper is that the regime is now playing a dangerous game by not reining in the groups even as it poses as seeking normalization.

“Normalization would imply the regime controls its own territory. The regime cannot have it both ways, claiming to control its territory, but allowing attacks on other countries from its territory,” it said.

On the other hand, Iranian-backed groups in Syria carried out several attacks on US forces in eastern Syria in mid-March, and the US responded with airstrikes on March 23.

The Jerusalem Post said the rocket fire targeting US troops in eastern Syria now looks similar to how Syria has enabled groups that targeted Israel on April 8-9.

“These incidents show how the regime continues to tolerate a plethora of armed groups, from Hezbollah to various militias backed by Iran, that undermine the regime’s own narrative of stability,” it added.

The newspaper said it is important to recall that the regime is actually reducing its own attempts at stability through these moves.

“Back in 2018, the Syrian regime was able to retake a swath of the country and return its forces to the Golan. As the regime prepared to return to the Golan, and push aside the Syrian rebels who had operated on the Syrian side since 2012, it put out messages about how it would restore order in the area,” the Post stated.

This was important because there were concerns that Syria would bring Hezbollah to the border with Israel and this would create an intolerable threat, it said.

In September 2017 reports said that a kind of “buffer zone” on the border could be created, with Russia involved, which would keep threats far from Israel’s border, the newspaper wrote, adding that Russian military police were initially deployed when the regime returned and that in August 2018, the Russians were supposed to end up at several points near the border.

“However, things have changed over the last several years in southern Syria. There have been increased tensions between former Syrian rebels who reconciled with the regime, and the regime,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

Also, there has been an increase in the smuggling of drugs by militias near the Jordanian border.

“Syria continues to also threaten US forces at Tanf garrison in Syria near the Jordanian and Iraqi border. In addition groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate in Damascus. Hezbollah also continues to operate in southern Syria,” the Post wrote.

The newspaper concluded that the rocket fire overnight on April 8 and 9 is a major escalation in terms of the Syrian front and also the ability of groups to operate from near the Golan and threaten Israel.

“This brings back memories of some of the chaos during the Syrian Civil War, when there were often threats and concerns about security along the Golan border,” it said.

However, today the Syrian regime is not in the same spot that it was back in 2015 or 2016, the Post explained, adding that the regime is now seeking to retake more parts of the country. Syria is working with Russia and in talks with Iran and Türkiye.

Those talks continue to falter regarding Türkiye’s withdrawal from northern Syria.

However, the overall trend is clear, the Jerusalem Post wrote, adding that the regime wants to portray itself as in charge of the country.

“At the same time, the regime enables instability through the kinds of incidents like the rocket fire on Saturday night and Sunday morning,” it stated.



A Father Mourns 2 Sons Killed in an Israeli Strike as Hunger Worsens in Gaza

 Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP)
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A Father Mourns 2 Sons Killed in an Israeli Strike as Hunger Worsens in Gaza

 Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP)

Three brothers in the Gaza Strip woke up early to run to a local clinic to get “sweets,” their word for the emergency food supplements distributed by aid groups. By the time their father woke up, two of the brothers had been fatally wounded by an Israeli strike and the third had lost an eye.

The strike outside the clinic on Thursday in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 14 people, including nine children, according to a local hospital, which had initially reported 10 children killed but later said one had died in a separate incident.

The Israeli military said it targeted a gunman it said had taken part in the Hamas attack that ignited the 21-month war. Security camera footage appeared to show two young men targeted as they walked past the clinic where several people were squatting outside.

Hatem Al-Nouri's four-year-old son, Amir, was killed immediately. His eight-year-old son, Omar, was still breathing when he reached the hospital but died shortly thereafter. He said that at first he didn't recognize his third son, two-year-old Siraj, because his eye had been torn out.

“What did these children do to deserve this?” the father said as he broke into tears. “They were dreaming of having a loaf of bread.”

Violence in the West Bank

In a separate development, Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. It said Seifeddin Musalat, 23, was beaten to death and Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest in the village of Sinjil near the city of Ramallah. Both were 23.

The military said Palestinians had hurled rocks at Israelis in the area earlier on Friday, lightly wounding two people. That set off a larger confrontation that included “vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and rock hurling,” the army said. It said troops had dispersed the crowds, without saying if anyone was arrested.

Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence, which has spiked — along with Palestinian attacks and Israeli military raids — since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

‘Sharp and unprecedented’ rise in malnutrition

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks while trying to get food, according to local health officials. Experts say hunger is widespread among the territory's 2 million Palestinians and that Israel’s blockade and military offensive have put them at risk of famine.

The deputy director of the World Food Program said Friday that humanitarian needs and constraints on the UN’s ability to provide aid are worse than he’s ever seen, saying “starvation is spreading” and one in three people are going for days without eating.

Carl Skau told UN reporters in New York that on a visit to Gaza last week he didn’t see any markets, only small amounts of potatoes being sold on a few street corners in Gaza City. He was told that a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour now costs over $25.

The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has recorded a “sharp and unprecedented rise" in acute malnutrition at two clinics it operates in Gaza, with more than 700 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and nearly 500 children, receiving outpatient therapeutic food.

“Our neonatal intensive care unit is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator," Dr. Joanne Perry, a physician with the group, said in a statement. “This is my third time in Gaza, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Mothers are asking me for food for their children, pregnant women who are six months along often weigh no more than 40 kilograms (88 pounds).”

The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza says it is allowing enough food to enter and blames the UN and other aid groups for not promptly distributing it.

Risking their lives for food

Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its offensive in March. It eased a 2 1/2 month blockade in May, but the UN and aid groups say they are struggling to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting.

A separate aid mechanism built around an American group backed by Israel has Palestinians running a deadly gantlet to reach its sites. Witnesses and health officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward the distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media.

The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

The Israeli- and US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denies there has been any violence in or around its sites. But two of its contractors told The Associated Press that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations denied by the foundation.

The UN Human Rights Office said Thursday that it has recorded 798 killings near Gaza aid sites in a little over a month leading up to July 7. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the office, said 615 were killed “in the vicinity of the GHF sites" and the remainder on convoy routes used by other aid groups.

A GHF spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the group's policies, rejected the “false and misleading stats," saying most of the deaths were linked to shootings near UN convoys, which pass by Israeli army positions and have been attacked by armed gangs and unloaded by crowds.

Israel has long accused UN bodies of being biased against it.

No ceasefire after two days of Trump-Netanyahu talks

Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel's offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But there were no signs of a breakthrough this week after two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.