Behind the Abu al-Zuhour military airport attack

On August 18, 2026, four air strikes targeted the Abu al-Zuhour military airport in the eastern countryside of Idlib province, northern Syria.

The aircraft involved could not be identified at the time of the attack, though some sources said they may have been Israeli jets.

It was the first time since December 2024 that this airport was attacked.

The scale of the damage at the airport showed that bombs had been used, which were not from the Iranian side. The concrete hangars were destroyed, and deep craters were made on the runway.

Eight strikes hit the runway and several concrete hangars at the airport.

There was no comment from the Israeli side soon after the airstrikes. They came the following day. They needed time to figure out how to respond to their own airstrikes.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry was quick and strongly condemned the Israeli air strikes. It said that the Israeli attacks continued since December 8, 2024, despite what it described as Syria’s restraint and efforts to consolidate stability and avoid escalation, exposing Israeli attempts to undermine those efforts and push the region towards further tension and instability. However, the latter is the view of the new Syrian government.

US Ambassador to Turkey and special presidential envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said that the strikes “constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.” Now, the Israelis have to respond.

According to the Israeli war belligerent’s army radio, they carried out the attacks after the arrival of “logistical and military equipment, including radars and drones” at the base by Turkish forces.

The Syrian government said that the airport was empty and that there were restoration activities to repair the damage caused during the civil war.

Netanyahu’s office posted on X a short statement, in which it claims Israel and Syria have agreed “to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo”.

“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” it said. “Israel will not tolerate threats to its security and would welcome a return to the status quo”, the statement read.

There has never been a status quo between the Israelis and Syria. Syria and Israel remain technically at war, a state of hostilities that has persisted continuously since 1948 without a formal peace treaty.

In 1974, a disengagement agreement established a ceasefire and a UN-monitored buffer zone in the Golan Heights; this arrangement was declared void by Israel following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.

First, Hafez al-Assad was the ruler of Syria in 1974. He died in 2000. So, all obligations that come with signing the agreement transfer to the successor, which was his son Bashar al-Assad.

The death of Hafez al-Assad does not automatically void a treaty or agreement between belligerent states. The Israelis just made it void. That’s much different.

The obligations continue to remain, even when Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham toppled the Assad regime in December 2024 and became the interim government of Syria.

Under international law, treaties are binding on the state itself, not on the individual leaders who signed them; succession of government or leadership does not terminate treaty obligations.

Israel violated international law in this regard.

The Israelis were claiming that they had warned Syria repeatedly about deployments by Turkey.

First, no such warning has ever been issued since Turkey decided to stay in Idlib province in 2017. Turkey’s deployments to Syria have been regular since then.

If the Israelis were to warn Syria, Turkey, or whoever wants to be in Syria, it would be for the first time, which has yet to happen. Turkey wasn’t warned. The airstrike on the military airport was like all other Israeli airstrikes in Syria since 2013, which have their root here:

In 1968, the then-Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin told UN member states at the UNGA that one must ensure that the enemy has no reactor. Well, none of the member states, but the Israelis saw in Arab member states a nuclear enemy.

The words “must ensure” are hasbara for “must act first,” but without warning, as a prior warning gives the “enemy” the opportunity to prepare itself against the act. This, and no other, is the correct definition to explain Israeli preemptive attacks.

So, what the Israelis did was not just bomb a military airport but also make sure that no one is a threat to them by viewing everyone as a threat. With this approach, the Israelis are just making themselves a threat, but to others.

Now I have seen a lot of countries condemning Iran when it attacks neighboring countries, all of whom are hiding behind the UN Charter and international law, while being a co-belligerent of the attacking belligerent, the United States under Trump. They all have US bases on their soil. If attacks on Iran are taking place from their soil or by crossing their airspace, yes, they make themselves accomplices, so co-belligerents. Iran then has the right to consider these countries military objectives.

The Israelis never respect treaty laws even though they are members of the United Nations. This was already the issue when, in January 2013, Israeli fighter jets fired from Lebanese airspace on a convoy of shipments for Hezbollah in Rif Dimashq, Syria. One of the other Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace was a near collision with a Russian fighter jet.

Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on Syria have been launched from Lebanese airspace since then, with documented incidents spanning from 2013 to 2026. A Lebanese advocacy group, AirPressure.info, claims Israeli aircraft entered Lebanese airspace over 22,000 times in the 13 years.

On February 10, 2018, an Israeli fighter jet came under Syrian air defense fire during its preemptive attack. The fighter jet used a Russian civilian plane, which was nearby, as a ‘shield.’ The latter was also a tactic above Lebanon, using the country below as a ' shield.'