Syria accused Israel on Thursday of trying to destabilize the country after intense airstrikes on military bases and a deadly raid in southern Syria, part of a deepening incursion that is sharply raising tensions in the region.
Since the Assad regime was ousted from Syria last year in a rapid rebel offensive, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes and has deployed forces into southern Syria, in what it says are necessary security operations against potentially hostile forces. Israel’s latest ground incursion, which appeared to be one of the deepest and deadliest into Syria so far, sparked further outrage among some Syrians.
Syria’s new leaders have condemned Israel’s moves, accusing Israel of violating its rights, and many Syrians fear that the incursions could herald a long-term occupation.
The Syrian foreign ministry said that “dozens of civilians and soldiers” had been wounded in airstrikes that caused the “near-total destruction” of the military airport outside the city of Hama. The Israeli military said late Wednesday that it had carried out airstrikes on “military capabilities” at bases in Syria, including one in the Hama region and another in the center of the country, as well as military infrastructure in the area of Damascus, the capital.
In the south of the country, the governor’s office in Daraa said that at least nine people had been killed in attacks during an advance by Israeli forces toward the town of Tall al-Jabiye. A local activist, Ammar Jahmany, said in a telephone interview that the Israeli forces clashed with local fighters who were defending the approaches to the town.
Israel said in a post on Telegram that its forces had conducted a nighttime raid. It said its forces had confiscated weapons and “destroyed terrorist infrastructure.” After the troops came under fire by armed militants, the military killed several of them, the post said.
The Daraa governorate said that funerals for nine men who were killed would take place after noon prayers in the nearby city of Nawa. Mr. Jahmany, who is from Tall al-Jabiye, said that the death toll had risen to 11 and that 22 others had been wounded, five of them critically.
He described the men killed in the attack as civilian volunteers who went out to defend the town, among them a tailor, a shopkeeper and construction workers. Others were wounded in Israeli drone strikes on houses in the town, he said, adding that his uncle was admitted to a hospital with a shrapnel wound in his shoulder after a drone strike on his home.
