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From time to time, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducts targeted air strikes on land assets in Syria. For example, recently they again targeted the airport near Damascus, the capital of Syria.

  • What are their objectives in carrying these air strikes?
  • Are they in a state of war with Syria? If so, since when and why?
  • If not, under what international conventions or international laws do they justify their actions?
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    I have edited the question to remove the problematic content. I think it is less biased now and it should be opened.
    – Alexei
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 9:20
  • Thanks for editing but no, thanks. You have completely rewritten the original post, totally loosing the point. I did not ask what Israel thinks and how they justify themselves. I'd rather want to hear what the community thinks, and is it justifyable from the POV of international law. Please don't do that anymore.
    – Dmitry Arestov
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 15:57
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    @DmitryArestov You contradict yourself. When you ask "What are their objectives in carrying these air strikes?" you are actually asking "what Israel thinks and how they justify themselves" while you wrote above that you don't. Based on the lack of effort on your side, signs of bias in your comments combined with the unacceptably low quality of the accepted answer (while ignoring the factually-based one) I'm voting to close.
    – Igor
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 17:00
  • @DmitryArestov Please note that Politics Stack Exchange is not a discussion forum. "What the community thinks" is off-topic here. We deal in questions about politics and political processes that can be answered objectively.
    – Philipp ♦
    Commented Jan 6, 2023 at 9:45

2 Answers 2

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According to Reuters, the goal of the Israeli strikes is to disrupt arms delivery to Iran's allies in Syria and Lebanon:

Regional and intelligence sources say Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Aljazeera provides more geopolitical context mentioning that the strikes are also a warning to both Iran and Syria:

“The attack is a warning to Iran insofar that it seeks to demonstrate that Tel Aviv will continue to resist the imposition of the new political dynamics of the nuclear deal in spite of Washington,” Hamdi told Al Jazeera.

It is also “a warning to al-Assad that there will be consequences to Syria’s infrastructure if it is used to facilitate the anticipated entrenchment of Iran’s reach that the nuclear deal is expected to bring about”, he continued.

France24 briefly mentions the rationale of the strikes from Israel's perspective:

Israel has repeatedly bombed Iran-backed militia targets in Syria in recent years, saying its goal is to erode Tehran's military presence, which Western intelligence sources say has expanded in the war-torn country.

They say Iran has a strong presence in the Sayeda Zainab neighbourhood of southern Damascus, where militias that it backs have underground bases.

As a side note, these strikes are not new and they target military positions:

Israel has bombed Syrian airports and military positions numerous times over the course of the 11-year war in Syria.

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To complete @Alexei's answer, Syria has invaded Israel shortly after its declaration of independence in 1948. An armistice agreement was signed between Israel and Syria at the end of the war, but it was broken by two wars and several border clashes, which ended in a cease-fire. So formally Israel and Syria are in a state of war at least since 1967.

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