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Report: Israel Hit Syrian Bases Scoped by Türkiye, Hinting at Regional Showdown

Debris is scattered at the site of an Israeli strike on a military airbase near Hama, Syria, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
Debris is scattered at the site of an Israeli strike on a military airbase near Hama, Syria, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
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Report: Israel Hit Syrian Bases Scoped by Türkiye, Hinting at Regional Showdown

Debris is scattered at the site of an Israeli strike on a military airbase near Hama, Syria, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
Debris is scattered at the site of an Israeli strike on a military airbase near Hama, Syria, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)

Türkiye scoped out at least three air bases in Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact before Israel hit the sites with air strikes this week, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The bombardment signals the risks of a deepening rift between two powerful regional militaries over Syria, where opposition factions have installed a new government after toppling former leader Bashar al-Assad in December.

The Israeli strikes on the three sites Türkiye was assessing, including a heavy barrage on Wednesday night, came despite Ankara's efforts to reassure Washington that a deeper military presence in Syria was not intended to threaten Israel.

The factions replacing Assad have alarmed Israel, which is wary of their presence on its border and has lobbied the United States to curb Türkiye’s growing influence in the country.

Ankara, a longtime backer of opposition to Assad, is positioning to play a major role in the remade Syria, including with a possible joint defense pact that could see new Turkish bases in central Syria and use of Syria's airspace.

In preparation, Turkish military teams in recent weeks visited the T4 and Palmyra air bases in Syria's Homs province and the main airport in Hama province, according to a regional intelligence official, two Syrian military sources and another Syrian source familiar with the matter.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the visits, which have not been previously reported.

Turkish teams evaluated the state of the runways, hangars and other infrastructure at the bases, the regional intelligence official said.

Another planned visit to T4 and Palmyra on March 25 was cancelled after Israel struck both bases just hours beforehand, according to the regional intelligence official and the two Syrian military sources.

Strikes at T4 "destroyed the runway, tower, hangars and the planes that were grounded. It was a tough message that Israel won't accept the expanded Turkish presence," said the intelligence official, who reviewed photographs of the damage.

"T4 is totally unusable now," said a fourth Syrian source, who is close to Türkiye.

When asked about the visits, a Turkish defense ministry official said: "Reports and posts regarding developments in Syria - whether real or alleged - that do not originate from official authorities should not be taken into consideration, as they lack credibility and may be misleading."

A spokesperson for Syria's defense ministry declined to comment.

Türkiye’s foreign ministry on Thursday called Israel "the greatest threat to regional security". On Friday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters Türkiye wanted no confrontation with Israel in Syria.

HEAVY STRIKES

In the four months since Assad was toppled, Israel has seized ground in southwest Syria, made overtures to the Druze minority, and struck much of the Syrian military's heavy weapons and equipment. Wednesday's strikes were some of the most intense yet.

Syria's foreign ministry said Israel struck five separate areas within a 30-minute window, resulting in the near-total destruction of the Hama base and wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers.

Israel said it hit the T4 air base and other military capabilities at air bases in Hama and Homs provinces, as well as military infrastructure in the Damascus area.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the air strikes a warning that "we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed". Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Ankara of seeking a "Turkish protectorate" in Syria.

Noa Lazimi, a specialist in Middle East politics at Bar-Ilan University, said Israel was concerned that Türkiye could establish Russian anti-aircraft systems and drones at T4.

"The base would enable Türkiye to establish air superiority in this area, and this poses a serious concern for Israel because it undermines its operational freedom in the region," she said.

'IDEOLOGICAL COLLISION COURSE'

Türkiye has tried to reassure the US that it wants to work towards a stable Syria.

Foreign Minister Fidan told US officials in Washington last month that Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa would not pose a threat to neighbors, according to a senior regional diplomat close to Türkiye and a source in Washington briefed on the meetings.

Fidan and other Turkish officials had earlier told Sharaa that Ankara was carefully calibrating its moves towards a defense pact so as not to irk Washington, one of the Syrian military sources said.

" Türkiye, not Israel, would pay the highest price among regional states were there to be failure or destabilization in Syria, including with refugees and security," an official in Türkiye’s ruling AK Party told Reuters.

Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute think tank, said Türkiye and Israel were on an "ideological collision course" but could avoid military escalation through mediation with Washington.

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Features

Takeaways From Israel’s Inconclusive Election

People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
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Takeaways From Israel’s Inconclusive Election

People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)

Israelis faced political uncertainty Wednesday after no clear winner appeared to have emerged from a high-turnout election. The path to forming a government is fraught for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main opponent, and another round of elections cannot be ruled out.

The first elections since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack were seen as a pivotal moment in Israel's history, serving both as a referendum on Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 17-year rule and a choice between different visions for the country's future.

The initial results show a deeply divided electorate with multiple fault lines.

Netanyahu lost support but could remain in office. His main opponent, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, would most likely have to partner with Arab-led parties to unseat him, a politically costly move that could alienate other opposition factions.

They could also partner with Netanyahu in a broad-based unity government, but that would be seen as a major betrayal by many of their voters after they put his ouster at the heart of their campaigns.

Final, official results are expected on Thursday or Friday, but there will likely be weeks of negotiations before a prime minister is declared — or new elections are called.

Here are the main takeaways:

Netanyahu is down but not out

Initial results show Netanyahu's religious and ultranationalist coalition falling short of a parliamentary majority of 61 seats, after reaching a peak of 68 seats in the previous parliament. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud also appears to have been whittled down from 32 seats to around 27.

That could reflect growing disillusionment with his long rule, anger at his handling of the Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath, and his support for the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, an intensely divisive issue as the country is embroiled in multiple wars.

But Likud still appears to have emerged as the largest party, putting Netanyahu in the best position to be tasked first with forming a government.

He would need support from at least one opposition party, or several defectors from that side, to rule. Most have promised not to partner with Netanyahu, but the Israeli leader, a savvy political operator, could offer them concessions. He is also likely to argue that a broad-based government under his leadership is preferable to one relying on Arab-led parties — or another round of elections.

He can already claim a victory of sorts by having retained much of his support even after the deadliest security breakdown in Israel's history unfolded on his watch.

Netanyahu “manages to overcome situations that I can’t see anyone else managing to overcome,” said Tamar Hermann, senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. “Politically, he is a magician.”

The opposition faces an uphill battle

Initial results indicate that parties opposed to Netanyahu won a parliamentary majority. But they include Arab-led factions that have long been politically sidelined, and which some Jewish-led parties have refused to partner with.

In the face of “a politics of supremacy, racism and exclusion, we are offering a totally different alternative,” Yousef Jabareen, the head of the Arab Joint List, said on X. “The change comes through Jewish-Arab partnership, a true and equal partnership. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Only one Arab party has ever joined an Israeli governing coalition, in 2021, and that government only lasted about 18 months. The level of distrust is far higher after Oct. 7 and the resulting wars. Netanyahu is likely to exploit that by casting any partnership with Arab-led parties as illegitimate or treasonous.

Without the Arabs, Eisenkot and his Jewish allies have no clear path to forming a coalition to unseat Netanyahu, and another round of elections might further weaken their hand.

Tens of thousands of Israelis who flew in for this election may not return for another one, and Netanyahu would stay on as caretaker prime minister, giving him a platform to attack his opponents and try to expand his own coalition.

That leaves the prospect of forming a government with Netanyahu — after a campaign in which they blamed him for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack, portrayed him as a threat to Israel's democratic institutions and highlighted his ongoing corruption trial.

Arab parties' success could make it harder to partner with them

The Arab-led parties represent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up about 20% of the country’s population. Descendants of Palestinians who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948, they are entitled to vote and serve in parliament.

While they hold senior roles in many sectors of Israeli society, they face discrimination, and many Jewish Israelis view them with suspicion because of their general support for the Palestinian cause.

Surging Arab turnout, driven in part by disgust at Netanyahu's far-right allies, may have delivered a historic victory for Arab-led parties, who could win around 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

That would give them significant power in any partnership with Eisenkot — potentially making such an alliance less likely. The opposition might also have to partner with hard-line Arab factions that are even more widely rejected among Jewish Israelis.

The results do little to assuage Israel's internal divisions

The elections were an inflection point for Israel after three years of war. But they also highlighted the same divisions that have roiled the country for decades.

Netanyahu's coalition, made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, supported strengthening Israel's Jewish character. It pushed for more settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and allowed for military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews. It also attempted to push through an overhaul of the country's judiciary in 2023 that drew mass protests.

Eisenkot's camp promoted a vision where Israel's Jewish character lives in harmony with its liberal democratic ideals. It promised honest leadership and accountability for Israel's Oct. 7 failures, vowed to bolster the judiciary and end the military draft exemptions. They also promised to fix Israel's international standing, which has deteriorated because of the Gaza war and settler violence in the West Bank.

The apparently stalemated results suggest Israel's divisions are deeper than ever.

Features

‘Nobody Heard us’ – Why Gen Z Are Leading Protests Across Europe

People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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‘Nobody Heard us’ – Why Gen Z Are Leading Protests Across Europe

People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)

Maya Gourdel, a 19-year-old student in Brussels, sits at a desk writing slogans against those running her country: “If we burn, you burn with us!” The slogan, taken from the 2012 film "The Hunger Games" that has been adopted as a symbol by many youth movements globally, reflects the anger, frustration and desire for change driving Gen Z-led protests around Europe.

From the suburbs of Paris to the squares of Belgrade, thousands have taken to the streets.

The demands are various but often overlapping – frustrations with shabby schooling facilities, perceived lack of economic opportunity, cost of living, corruption, housing and a sense of not being listened to. At times those protests triggered violence – with thousands of shops in France alone being damaged or looted in recent weeks – and police firing stun grenades and water cannons.

This weekend they also brought real change – student-led protests culminated in the toppling in an election of Serbia’s long-time leader Aleksandar Vucic after nearly two years of demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism.

“Waking up, the first thing we felt was certainly a sense of relief and freedom," said student protester Stasa Piletic. "Personally, I feel a sense of victory. I feel that we finally moved from protests to responsibility."

‘AN EXPLOSION OF RAGE’

Chiara, a 21-year-old student ‌in protest-hit Milan, believes “it's ‌vital to take part in people's spontaneous movements born from an explosion of rage that made collective ‌action possible.”

"I ⁠think the worst ⁠damage this ruling class has done to my generation is stealing even the ability to imagine a future, to dream," she said.

She said Italian students were confronting a reality of schools without enough teachers and crumbling buildings.

“And all of this with the prospect of an underpaid job which we didn't qualify for and the prospect of living in a tiny, overpriced house, probably away from our city, which we didn't want to live in."

Protests led by Gen Z have caused ructions globally as the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012 found its voice, from Bangladesh in 2024 and Nepal in 2025, to India this year. Now Europe has become a focal point.

Rising prices and the cost of living are a concern for 40% of 16-30-year-olds, according to a European Union survey published in 2025.

Among the 92.7 million people in the EU who faced ⁠the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, the highest risk was recorded for young adults aged 18-24 years, ‌at 26.3%, while the lowest was recorded for adults aged 65 years or over, at 18.8%.

Younger ‌people are also wary of shouldering the financial burden of an older generation that tends to vote in greater numbers. People over 60 in France make up a quarter ‌of the population but own 60% of France's wealth, according to the OFCE think tank.

French pensions are by far the biggest public expense, on track to reach ‌14% of economic output, as the population ages and voters resist raising the retirement age or reducing benefits. That is still less than Greece or Italy, which spend the largest proportion of national income on public pensions among OECD countries, at around 16% of GDP, according to OECD figures in 2025. But it is much more than Australia, Chile, Iceland, Ireland or South Korea, which spent less than 4% of GDP on public pensions, according to the OECD.

‘YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPE ARE UNITED’

Bilal Narjissi, a 17-year-old high school student in ‌a suburb north of Paris, has been protesting against “deplorable” conditions and staff shortages at his school. “There used to be rats,” he said.

Students were evacuated last year when a roof collapsed on the courtyard, though no one was hurt, ⁠he said.

Protests showed “that young people in ⁠Europe are united”, he said, adding, "we all agree on one point: that young people are treated like children, far too much, and that they aren't listened to enough.”

A French government report in October said pension spending had risen by 2.5 percentage points of GDP between 2000 and 2023 while that for education had declined 0.5. It also showed 32% of the education ministry’s budget went towards pensions, crowding out money for other areas.

Gourdel, too, has been protesting for better conditions in schools in Belgium.

“We tried to do it passively. Nobody heard us. It's only when people started to burn trash or that kind of stuff that the media and cameras started showing us,” she said.

The protests are still spreading, with a demonstration planned in Germany this weekend over cost of living, inequality, war and the state of schools.

Unrest has also hit Albania, where student-led demonstrations against Prime Minister Edi Rama's government, fueled by anger over perceived corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, engulfed Tirana and spread to other cities.

“Our Prime Minister spent 130 days not listening to us,” said Xyke Kurti, a 19-year-old architecture student.

“If you ask a student in Albania, 'where do you see your future?' Everyone says 'outside this country'," she said, arguing that at home, even if you have talent, someone with "connections is always going to beat you".

Serbia’s student movement did what demonstrators in other European capitals can only dream of.

Now, though, comes the gritty business of governing – something neither the students nor their candidates have any experience of.

Luka Stojakovic, another protester, brushes that aside. "We have seen where people with political experience have brought us."

Features

In Israel, Eisenkot Tries Quiet Appeal to Oust Netanyahu

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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In Israel, Eisenkot Tries Quiet Appeal to Oust Netanyahu

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Gadi Eisenkot, the man who could unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost always dresses in black, speaks halting English and tends to respond in interviews with bullet-point lists, a reflection of the military culture that shaped him.

For some voters in Tuesday's general election, the 66-year-old's lack of charisma may be one of his greatest assets.

Serious and unassuming, Eisenkot is in many ways the opposite of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has flawless American-accented English and is ever ready with headline-grabbing soundbites on US television or social media.

Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has vowed to unite Israelis after the divisive tenure of Netanyahu, who has moved the country sharply to the right.

"There is a large camp in Israel whose main goal in the coming election is just for things to be calmer," said Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank.

"The middle class," he said, "is looking for someone who will look responsible, boring. I think Eisenkot has that appeal."

Eisenkot, who has been neck and neck with Netanyahu in polls, has promised to try to restore the international image of Israel, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.

He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beat up an American journalist and a French mayor, decrying the incidents as "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's government.

But the military man is no peacenik. He has even sought to play to the right of Netanyahu by vowing no Palestinian state, replaying clips from an earlier political era in which the long-serving prime minister begrudgingly voiced openness to the idea under US pressure.

Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called "Dahieh doctrine", named after Beirut’s southern suburb, in which Israel vowed massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese group.

Israel has adopted the doctrine again in Gaza, causing destruction that critics say amounts to war crimes, an assertion disputed by Israel.

- Working-class roots -

Eisenkot has garnered broad public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.

His working-class roots constitute another element of his appeal. He would be the first prime minister who is Sephardic, Jews who trace their recent origins to the Middle East and North Africa.

Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews, and grew up on Israel's geographic periphery.

His background came into the spotlight when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Eisenkot as "a monkey" controlled by "Ashkenazi elitists". He was referring to Jews of European descent who have historically dominated Israel's political and economic institutions.

While the term is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew and can mean something akin to a "fall guy" taking the blame on behalf of others, the remark drew widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and from Netanyahu himself.

Eisenkot swiftly sought to turn the episode to his advantage.

His campaign erected billboards denouncing discrimination against the Sephardim, and his party accused Netanyahu of sidelining Sephardic members of Likud by limiting their media appearances during the campaign.

- Limited change on security -

In weekend appearances, Eisenkot met religious Jews to whom he defended Israeli control over the West Bank.

"Israeli settlement (of the West Bank) is a value, on condition that it serves the interests of the state of Israel, and it's done according to the law," he told representatives of the Religious Zionist movement on Sunday.

He appeared to be rejecting the establishment of unauthorized settlement outposts, which have fueled a recent rise in violence against Palestinians.

On Gaza, he has vowed to end Hamas rule within 18 months. He recently said this could be achieved either through the implementation of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan, which envisages Hamas's gradual disarmament and a transfer of power, or through "creative operations" aimed at destroying the movement's military wing.

Addressing a key source of resentment among Israelis following three years of war, Eisenkot has promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.

He promised a "universal national service law" requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civil service.

He has sought to appeal to centrist and liberal voters by pledging to "protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press".

And in his final major rally before Tuesday's vote, he appealed directly to wavering Netanyahu supporters to change their vote.

"Deep down, you too know that Israel cannot go on like this," he said. "Israel needs change."