Israeli drone strikes and ground operations in Syria have intensified over the past week, leaving at least eight Syrian soldiers dead and sparking a wave of regional condemnation and heightened tensions. The strikes, which began on August 26, 2025, targeted the southern Damascus suburb of Kiswah and nearby strategic military sites, with additional airborne commando raids reported the following day. The events mark a significant escalation in Israel’s post-Assad era operations in Syria, with implications for regional stability and the ongoing balance of power.
According to the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the initial Israeli drone strikes on August 26 killed eight soldiers and wounded several others in Kiswah, a southern suburb of Damascus. The Ministry denounced the attack as “a grave violation of international law” and “clear breach of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” as reported by the Associated Press. The statement went further, accusing Israel of pursuing “repeated aggressive policies aimed at undermining security and stability in the region.”
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) detailed that the soldiers had discovered “surveillance and eavesdropping devices” during a routine patrol, prompting the Israeli attack. Ongoing strikes prevented reinforcements from reaching the area until the following evening, SANA added, with some troops eventually able to retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades and destroy some of the surveillance equipment.
As the dust settled from the initial assault, more Israeli strikes and an airdrop commando raid hit the area on August 27, 2025. While details remain scarce, SANA confirmed that Israeli aircraft launched several raids before deploying troops in an airborne landing at a former military site. Syrian army sources told Reuters that the operation included dozens of soldiers equipped with search gear, who remained at the site for more than two hours before withdrawing. The target of these operations was a former air defense base in the southwest Damascus countryside—an installation once used by Iran during the rule of ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and, according to sources, a significant outpost for pro-Iranian militias.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, corroborated the reports of multiple strikes in the area, noting that the attacks hit points linking Damascus with the southern province of Sweida—a region that witnessed deadly clashes last month between pro-government gunmen and fighters from Syria’s Druze minority. The Observatory added that one of the strikes occurred after paramedics had arrived on the scene, complicating rescue efforts.
Earlier on August 26, an Israeli drone strike near the southern town of Quneitra killed one person, according to Al-Ikhbariah and the Observatory. Syria’s Foreign Ministry again condemned the strike, reiterating its stance that such actions violate international law and threaten peace and stability in the region.
Israel has maintained a policy of ambiguity regarding its military actions in Syria, with the Israeli military declining to comment on the recent strikes when approached by multiple news outlets, including BBC and Reuters. However, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz was unequivocal in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on August 26: “Israeli forces will remain indefinitely in the security zone necessary to protect the Golan and Galilee settlements from threats looming from the Syrian side.” Katz attributed the deployment to lessons learned from the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, emphasizing that “forces are operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel.”
The current wave of Israeli operations follows a broader pattern that began after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Since then, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria and seized a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the country’s south. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israel has conducted 95 attacks in Syria in 2025 alone—85 by air and 10 by land operation. The stated aim, as Israeli officials have articulated in the past, is to prevent advanced weapons from falling “into the hands of extremists” and to counter the influence of Iranian-backed militias entrenched in the region during the Assad era.
The strikes have not gone unnoticed by Syria’s neighbors. The Kingdom of Jordan, for instance, issued a strong condemnation, denouncing “in the strongest terms, the repeated Israeli violations and its infiltration into Syrian territory,” as reported by The Jerusalem Post. The airstrikes and ground operations have thus fueled concerns about a broader regional escalation, especially as security talks between Damascus and Israel continue in an attempt to reduce tensions.
July 2025 saw a preview of these dynamics, when Israel bombed Syrian government forces around the city of Sweida following deadly sectarian clashes involving the Druze community. Israel’s prime minister at the time justified the strikes as necessary to prevent weapons and forces from being used against the Druze—a religious minority with a significant presence in both Syria and Israel, where they are viewed as a loyal community and often serve in the Israeli military. Defense Minister Katz recently reiterated that the Israeli military “will continue to protect the Druze in Syria as well.”
Notably, the recent attacks occurred as Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was attending the Damascus International Fair, nearly 15 kilometers from the targeted area. The proximity of the strikes to such a high-profile event underscores the unpredictability and potential risks of further escalation. Meanwhile, Syrian sources have speculated that equipment left behind in the targeted areas may have belonged to Iranian-backed militias, highlighting the enduring complexities of Syria’s post-war landscape and the challenges facing the new Syrian army, which has established only a token presence in some of these regions.
While the United Nations Security Council extended a long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon on August 28, 2025, the situation in Syria remains fraught. The international community has yet to coalesce around a unified approach to the ongoing Israeli-Syrian confrontations, and the repeated violations of sovereignty—however each side frames them—continue to test the limits of diplomatic engagement.
As Israeli strikes in Syria stretch into a third day and regional actors voice their alarm, the path forward remains uncertain. For now, the cycle of action and retaliation appears set to continue, with each new incident raising the stakes for all involved.