Netanyahu: Military operations will continue in Syria

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the Israeli military has recently launched military strikes against targets in southern Syria, aiming to prevent the Syrian regime's armed forces from entering the Druzi-populated areas. The Israeli army will continue to take action to ensure the "demilitarization" of the Druze settlements and protect the Druze people.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Netanyahu issued a statement on Thursday (July 17) saying that Israel's policy towards Syria has two core principles: one is to ensure that the area south of the Syrian capital Damascus, from the Golan Heights to the Druze Mountains, remains "demilitarized", and the other is to protect the Druze community. He said, "It is absolutely unacceptable" for the Syrian regime's armed forces to advance southward and attack the residents of Druze.

Netanyahu also said that he had instructed the Israeli army to launch a "powerful strike operation", and it was this strike that led to the current ceasefire. He emphasized that Israel would trade force for peace, "This will be our policy in the future."

Last Sunday (the 13th), fierce conflicts broke out between the Druze armed factions and the Bedouin tribes in Suveda Province in southern Syria. Subsequently, the military forces of the Syrian interior and defense departments intervened and exchanged fire with some Druze armed factions. Israel intervened in the conflict on the grounds of protecting the Druze and denying entry of the Syrian regime's armed forces into southern Syria. On Wednesday (the 16th), the Israeli army launched fierce air strikes on the area near the Syrian presidential palace and the General Staff building in Damascus. On the same day, the Syrian interior department announced that a new ceasefire agreement had been reached in Suveda Province.