Global Research

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

***

Video of the Israeli aggression against eastern Aleppo. One target was an ammunition store which continued burning for 2-3 hours:

Click here to watch the video

Israeli Aggression Against Syria Takes a New Turn – Escalation or Desperation?

Official statement from the Syrian Ministry of Defence:

At 1:45 am, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo, targeting several points in Aleppo countryside, in conjunction with a drone attack carried out by terrorist organizations from Idlib and Aleppo western countryside, in an attempt to target civilians in Aleppo city and its surrounding.

The aggression resulted in the martyrdom and injury of several civilians and soldiers, and material losses to public and private property.

Aleppo Under Attack 

Israeli warplanes infiltrated Syrian airspace via Jordan. They used the Syrian airspace over the illegal US base in Al Tanf (on the border with Jordan) to proceed towards the depths of the central Syrian Badia or desert area at low altitude to avoid detection. The missiles were fired from the Athriya area with U.S. cover towards several targets in the eastern Aleppo suburbs that until December 2016 were occupied by the Western-midwived terrorist gangs.

Simultaneously terrorist groups in Idlib (north-west) dominated by HTS (Al Qaeda) launched a massive attack with suicide drones on civilians in Aleppo City in an attempt to divert the Syrian Air Defence teams.

The Israeli aggression targeted the Jibreen area of eastern Aleppo, close to the Aleppo International Airport and the Ibn Al Khaldoun psychiatric hospital whose patients were terrified having already endured the five year occupation by the same terrorist gangs.

This combined attack was intended to stretch the capability of the Air Defence in defending Aleppo against the dual attacks.

Israel not only targeted Jibreen, it also targeted Kfarjoum to the West of Aleppo.

 

Sites hit included a gas station, weapon depots and various buildings and is considered as the most intensive attack on the Aleppo governorate by Israel – so far there are at least 30 martyrs (the number is still expected to rise) including women and children. Friends in Aleppo described it as “judgement day”, the explosions were so loud and the attack so intense.

These are people who lived through war since 2012.

There were also Syrian Arab Army martyrs and from Hezbollah units in the area. Some of the names of the martyred Hezbollah fighters:

 

• Ahmad Jawad Shhemeh, 1964
• Mustafa Ahmad Makkeh, 1984
• Ibrahim Anis Al-Zein, 1982
• Ali Mohammad Al-Haf, 1982
• Mustafa Ali-Nasif , 1991

A sixth fighter is reported to have died from his wounds.

Explosions continued for at least two hours due to the interception of the Syrian Air Defence combined with the fire and explosions from the weapons depots.

The day before at 5.50pm Israel had carried out a failed assassination attempt against a farm in Bahdaleyah town next to Sayyeda Zainab in the southern Damascus countryside. The farm was completely destroyed but the Hezbollah fighters had evacuated minutes before the strike and escaped. Two civilians were injured.

The two attacks within eight hours demonstrates Israel’s mounting desperation to inflict damage upon Hezbollah bases and fighters in Lebanon and Syria which is known to be the backbone of the resistance and a safe haven for the Hezbollah forces who were instrumental in the liberation of specific Syrian territory from US allied terrorist groups since the regime change war began in 2011.

Both aggressions targeted Hezbollah sites. The attack on Aleppo was unexpected – it is far away from the southern Lebanon front and logistically speaking it is not a natural target for Israel.

Therefore it can only be interpreted as an Israeli attempt to expand the war against Hezbollah specifically while triggering an escalation from the north-western Al Qaeda groups to further pressure the Syrian Arab Army forces and Air Defence teams and to distract the Syrian-based Resistance groups away from any attacks on Israel.

Lebanese journalist Qassem Qassem recently said:

I believe that the intensity of the clash and escalation with the Israeli enemy has increased and that the moment of heading to a battle that may develop into a war is approaching.

I believe that the Israeli enemy is preparing itself for a military campaign against Lebanon, and is now working to get rid of some of the obstacles it has, such as ammunition and the American green light.

I believe that the visit of Security Minister Gallant comes in the context of preparing for the attack on Lebanon and not for the Rafah operation.

Most Israeli military analysts speak with certainty about launching a campaign against Lebanon and that it is a matter of time.

All of this may be for exaggeration, but I believe that the time for exaggeration for Israel ended on October 7, especially after it faced the existential threat.

What this does show is that Israel is cornered. It is losing the ground war in Gaza against a relatively ill-equipped, starving and besieged Palestinian Resistance while the IOF forces on the ground in Gaza commit hourly atrocities against civilians, all caught on camera. Israel’s image as the ‘most moral army’-’only democracy in the middle east’ is irretrievably destroyed.

 

Article in the Telegraph. Reported by The Cradle:

Israeli intelligence officials told The Telegraph that the government’s stated goal to “eradicate Hamas” in the Gaza Strip has become unachievable after the US “turned its back” on Tel Aviv by abstaining during a UN Security Council (UNSC) vote earlier this week.

“If you’d asked me this a month ago, I would definitely say yes [we can eliminate Hamas] because, at that time, the Americans were backing Israel,” an Israeli intelligence official told the British daily, reportedly suggesting this assessment “had now changed.”

“The US doesn’t support going into Rafah, which they did before, so the cards right now are not good, meaning Israel has to do something dramatic and drastic to change the momentum and climate,” the source added, highlighting that “pressure is mounting on Israel to reach some sort of a deal, which means Hamas could survive. Both Hamas and the Iranians are playing on that.”

In the north on the border with Lebanon the 200,000 settlers and businesses that fled the conflict are destined to never return. Yemen has effectively blockaded an arterial sea route and even with the aid of the ‘normalised’ Abrahamic Accords regional countries like UAE, Jordan etc Israel’s economy is dying and military morale is on its knees.

The veils have been lifted. Israel is trying to expand the war to gain a victory which will ensure its survival. It has clearly demonstrated its allegiance to the Zionist-allied Al Qaeda factions in Idlib and is losing face globally. It has isolated itself even from the U.S. thanks to Netanyahu-hubris. It is trapped and flailing but perhaps at its most dangerous.

It is worth noting that ISIS attacks have also been increasing exponentially since October 7th, many coming from the US illegal military base at Al Tanf, used by Israel to launch attacks on Syria.

It is no longer possible to deny that the clear and present axis of terrorism in Syria is US-UK-Israel-Turkey-EU-Jordan-ISIS-Al Qaeda. The battle lines are no longer blurred, they are crystal clear. Those Palestinian supporters still promoting Idlibistan as a beacon of support for Palestine should take note.

Will Israel maintain escalation? What will the U.S. and U.K. do with elections looming? Whatever the outcome the Resistance is ready. Israel, the Zionist colonialist settler state, will not win this war.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Many thanks to Syrian journalist and researcher Ibrahim Wahdi for his help in compiling this information. You can follow him on Twitter or Telegram or at Press TV.

Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in the Middle East – on the ground in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine, while also covering the conflict in Yemen since 2015. In 2017 Vanessa was a finalist for the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism which was won by the much-acclaimed Robert Parry that year. In 2019, Vanessa was among recipients of the Serena Shim Award for uncompromised integrity in journalism. Vanessa contributes regularly to UK Column News, RT, Press TV and many independent media outlets. You can find her work at her Substack and Patreon.

Featured image: “Israel stood by our side…We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance” – including weapons the Netanyahu regime supplied. Spokesman for one extremist group in Syria 2017 (Source: Vanessa Beeley)