Israel’s military has seized a strategic mountain top in its contested border area with Syria and advanced on positions beyond it, reshaping the frontier potentially for the long term.

Qaeda spin-off HTS will come in two flavours only. Either submit and collude like the West Bank, or end up wrecked like Gaza There has been a flurry of “What next for Syria?” articles in the wake of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s hurried exit from Syria and the takeover of much of the country by al-Qaeda’s rebranded local forces.

Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tice's mother his country won't conduct airstrikes near a secret prison outside Damascus.

The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the U.N. after the 1973 Mideast war. A

The Houthi attack followed a series of Israeli airstrikes on Thursday, which targeted Yemen's capital Sanaa as well as the ports of Hodeidah, As-Salif and Ras Issa. The strikes, which the Israeli military said were aimed at Houthi infrastructure, killed at least nine people.

The Israeli military hit weapons depots and air defenses, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel has said it aims to keep military equipment away from extremists.

CNN could not independently confirm that claim. An Israeli military spokesperson this week denied that forces were “advancing toward” Damascus. Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria that abuts Mount Hermon ...

The invasion and attacks, backed by the US, are continuing Israel’s fantasy of remaking the region through war.

Israel has paved the way for a decisive strike against Iran’s nuclear programme by eliminating swathes of Syria’s military infrastructure, according to officials speaking to The Telegraph following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Israel's relentless bombing of Syria highlights the Netanyahu government's desire to take advantage of shifting regional power dynamics