An Israeli airstrike [destroyed](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-carries-out-air-strike-edge-syrian-capital-2025-03-13/) a residential building on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday in the latest Israeli incursion into post-Assad Syria.
Israel said the target was a command center of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been based in Damascus since the early 1990s, and warned Syria’s president, **Ahmad al-Sharaa**, that “Islamic terrorism will not have immunity in Damascus.”
Ever since al-Sharaa’s HTS jihadist militia led the campaign that overthrew Assad in December, Israel has moved aggressively to advance its interests. It has crippled Syria’s military assets, occupied a deep “buffer zone,” unilaterally declared the demilitarization of southern Syria, and cultivated ties with the country’s Druze minority, which is wary of Islamist power.
Al-Sharaa has [criticized](https://www.instagram.com/mintpress/reel/DG5zy2QsRAz/al-jolani-will-not-disclose-how-he-will-respond-to-israeli-aggression-against-sy/?api=bongdalu%E3%80%90GB777.BET%E3%80%91.kbix&hl=ne) Israel’s incursions as “expansionism,” but, particularly after Israel’s initial campaign, he has no serious military assets with which to respond.
Meanwhile, he is focused on dicey internal matters: the flare-up of sectarian violence in the west and implementing a landmark agreement with the Kurds in the northeast.
**What is Israel’s motive?** Its stated objective is to defang and preempt any military or terrorist threat that could take root in post-Assad Syria. It remains to be seen whether its bold actions end up creating more instability next door, or less.