Bodies line Gaza hospital wall and surgeons operate in corridors

Bodies line Gaza hospital wall and surgeons operate in corridors

Can Syria sit out the shadow war between Israel and Iran as Gaza bombardment intensifies?

LONDON: Syrians are growing increasingly concerned that repeated Israeli airstrikes and incursions could drag the country into the intensifying Israel-Hamas war, extending Syria’s decade-long existence as a proxy battleground.

In the three weeks since Hamas’ deadly assault on sites across the Israeli border of the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched attacks against Syria’s civilian airports in Aleppo and Damascus, including a simultaneous strike on Oct. 12.

Nearly two weeks later, the Israeli Defense Forces killed eight soldiers during a raid in southern Syria, allegedly in response to rocket fire launched from Syrian territory the previous day.

On Monday, Israeli fighter jets again struck what Tel Aviv regarded as sites of rocket launchers in Syria, and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, apparently in response to earlier such attacks into Israeli territory. 

A picture taken from Israel’s southern city of Sderot shows a fire erupting following Israeli shelling of the northern Gaza Strip, on October 29, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

“Since the 2006 Lebanon war, we have anticipated a direct confrontation with Israel or a full-blown US-Iran war on Syrian soil,” said Diana, 37, a UAE-based