Israeli invasion of Syria (2024–present)

Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the demilitarized buffer zone in southwestern Syria (adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights) and has continued to occupy it. Israel also carried out an airstrike campaign to cripple the Syrian Armed Forces, and demanded that it stay out of southern Syria. The Israeli government remarked that these actions were intended to prevent any "potential threat" from post-war Syria.

Israel took advantage of the power vacuum created by the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to increase the amount of territory it controlled by several hundred square miles. Israel declared the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Ba'athist Syria to be void. Israel initially said this new invasion would be "temporary", but later said it would hold onto the territory for an "unlimited time". Israel also launched extensive aerial and naval strikes on Syrian military targets across the country, under an operation codenamed Operation Arrow of Bashan (Hebrew: מבצע חץ הבשן, romanized: Mivtza Ḥetz HaBashan). Israel's campaign crippled Syria's military capabilities, including its army and its navy, and destroyed the Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles.

Israel's campaign in Syria was internationally condemned and was accused of violating international law. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa condemned Israel's actions and demanded withdrawal, but also said his country was not in a position to be drawn into another war following the 13-year Syrian civil war.

On 25 February 2025, Israel deepened its invasion of southern Syria while conducting a wave of airstrikes there and in Damascus, one day after demanding the Syrian caretaker government demilitarize southern Syria. Since the July 2025 Suwayda clashes, Israel has launched airstrikes against the Syrian military that it says are in defense of the Syrian Druze.

By December 2025, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data reported that since the invasion, Israel has carried out attacks across Syria more than 600 times, averaging nearly two times a day.