Israeli strikes turn Daraa revolution celebration into a funeral

PARIS — For days, Daraa activists have been sending out calls to participate in events commemorating the 14th anniversary of the start of the Syrian revolution. But celebration gave way to mourning on Monday night, when the southern province suffered its most violent Israeli strikes since the regime fell in December. 

Israeli warplanes launched more than 30 airstrikes in Daraa province over the course of three hours on Monday night, killing three civilians and injuring 19 others, according to Daraa health director Dr. Ziad Mahami. 

Funerals were held for the victims of Israel’s bombings at the al-Omari Mosque in Daraa city on Tuesday. Mourners held signs denouncing the attacks and international silence as sadness and anger replaced celebration.

Targets of Monday night’s strikes included the 12th Brigade, 175th Regiment and military housing in Izraa, a town in the northern Daraa countryside. The 132nd Brigade and military housing in Daraa city were also hit. 

The civilians killed and injured by Israel’s strikes lived in Masaken al-Dahiya, directly adjacent to the 132nd Brigade in Daraa city, journalist Emad Albasiri, who was at the scene of the bombing last night, said. 

Israeli aircraft carried out “double-tap strikes” in Masaken al-Dahiya, Albasiri told Syria Direct. After first responders from the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) and residents arrived at the scene to rescue the wounded, it was bombed again, causing additional casualties, he said. 

The civil defense said on Tuesday that three of its personnel were injured while rescuing residents in the Masaken al-Dahiya neighborhood, which was hit by two airstrikes. 

The latest escalation is part of ongoing Israeli military operations in southern Syria since the Assad regime fell last December. Tel Aviv has struck military sites, launched an extended ground incursion and installed military sites in Quneitra province and the western Daraa countryside. 

Read more: Israel in Syria: ‘Permanent’ fortifications and attempts to win over residents

Why now? 

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X Monday evening that his country attacked “command centers and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the former Syrian regime that there are attempts to rehabilitate.” The “presence of these [weapons] in southern Syria is a threat” that Israel would “act against,” he added. 

Two press sources from Daraa province rejected Adraee’s accusations, telling Syria Direct the sites that were hit had not been rehabilitated, but were used to store military equipment and war remnants collected from residential neighborhoods and nearby farmland. 

Israeli forces “repeatedly targeted these military assets since the regime fell,” Malek Abu Obaida, a journalist from Daraa who covered last night’s bombings, said. “The targeted installations have not been activated, and only include a few guards.” 

These military sites “have very large areas, and destroying them would require thousands of airstrikes,” said Muhammad al-Rifai, a media activist in the Daraa countryside. Destroying them would require “turning them into wastelands,” he told Syria Direct. 

Celebration postponed

Before last night’s Israeli airstrikes, Daraa planned to hold two periods of celebration on Tuesday: the first at 11 o’clock local time at Daraa city’s al-Saraya Square, and the second at 9 o’clock in the evening in Panorama Square, where participants from cities and towns across the southern province would gather.

Israel’s strikes turned the first celebration into a funeral, as residents gathered to mourn the victims and lay them to rest. At the time of publication, there was some debate about whether or not to cancel the nighttime commemoration, since it would include “celebration, and the Houran [Daraa] is now sorrowful,” Abu Obaida said. 

Even if the evening event goes ahead, “fewer people will participate” given the mood in the province, he added, to say nothing of “the fear of renewed Israeli bombing tonight.”

Daraa residents went to sleep on Monday in a state of “great anger and tension,” al-Rifai said. The strikes brought back memories, as its people recalled the first blood spilled on its soil on this day 14 years ago, when Mahmoud Jawabra and Hossam Ayash were killed by Syrian regime gunfire in Daraa city. 

Since that day, “the Houran endured destruction for years so the blood of its children, who sparked the revolution, would not be in vain,” al-Rifai added. Daraa “will not be silent today, either.” 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.