Three sources revealed to Reuters that Bashar al-Assad does not encourage support for Hamas after receiving threats from Israel through the United Arab Emirates, and Hezbollah also took these threats seriously.
A Syrian intelligence officer told the agency that the Israeli strikes damaged defensive military equipment even before the forces had time to install it, and that the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, which Iran uses to transport weapons, are out of service almost all the time due to the Israeli strikes.
A regional intelligence source said that Israel is telling Bashar al-Assad: "You allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to transfer weapons and establish themselves, then we will cut your lifeline and you will find yourself in trouble."
The Syrian intelligence officer said: "We do not want to put ourselves in a situation of confrontation or open war with Israel."
The third source said: "Hezbollah took this threat seriously because it would have cost them everything they have built in Syria in recent years."
Six sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Israel is carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes on Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran's arms supply to its proxy forces in the region.
The sources, including a Syrian military intelligence officer and a commander in the regional coalition supporting the regime (Iran), said that Israel changed its strategies after October 7 and is continuously attacking Gaza and Lebanon.
The sources said that although Israel has for years struck targets linked to Iran in Syria, including areas where the Lebanese Hezbollah group is active, it is now launching deadly and more frequent airstrikes against Iranian arms transfers and air defense systems in Syria.
Other aircraft hit infrastructure in southern Syria: an air defense base was attacked on December 28 and an anti-aircraft defense system was destroyed.
THE COMMANDER OF THE REGIONAL COALITION and two other sources familiar with Hezbollah said that Israel has abandoned the undeclared "rules of the game" that characterized its attacks in Syria in the past, and it seems that it is "no longer wary" of causing heavy losses to Hezbollah there.
"They used to fire warning shots - they would hit near the truck, our people would get out of the truck and then they would hit the truck," said the commander, describing Israeli strikes on arms shipments handled by Hezbollah before October.
HE CONTINUES: "AND NOW IT'S OVER. Israel is now launching more deadly and more frequent airstrikes against arms transfers and Iranian air defense systems in Syria. They bomb them all directly. They bomb in order to kill."
The intense air campaign led to the death of 19 Hezbollah members in Syria within three months, more than double the number of deaths in the entire year of 2023. More than 160 Hezbollah members were also killed in the Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon during the same period.
A SENIOR ISRAELI OFFICIAL said that Hezbollah began this round of fighting with attacks on October 8, and that the Israeli strategy is one of retaliation.
In response to a question last month about an Israeli attack in Syria, a senior IDF official said that Israeli forces are operating throughout the region and are taking "all necessary measures" to show Israel's determination to defend itself.