UN envoy urges Israel to halt Syria attacks 'at once'

United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen urged Israel Saturday (May 3) to halt its attacks on Syria "at once", after it carried out multiple air strikes targeting the militant-led authorities following sectarian violence this week.

Fresh Israeli raids were reported overnight, after Israel said repeatedly that its forces stood ready to protect the Druze minority after sectarian clashes killed 119 people, mostly Druze fighters, according to a Britain-based war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 20 strikes hit military targets across Syria late Friday, in the "heaviest" assault carried out by Israel on its neighbour this year.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported strikes near Damascus and in the country's centre, west and south, saying one civilian was killed.

An Israeli military statement said its forces "struck a military site, anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile infrastructure in Syria". It did not give further details.

Firas Aabdeen, 32, a member of the security forces in Harasta near Damascus, where one of the attacks hit, said he heard several "very loud" strikes and that a largely disused Assad-era military barracks was targeted.

The barrage followed an Israeli attack near the presidential palace in Damascus early on Friday, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz called a "clear message" to Syria's new rulers.

"We will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," they said.

Israeli foe Iran, which propped up the now ousted Assad government, condemned the strikes, accusing Israel of seeking to "destroy and annihilate the defence, economic and infrastructure capabilities of Syria as an independent country".

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, also an Assad ally, said that the attacks were "a clear attempt to undermine" and weaken Syria.

ISRAEL ARMY "DEPLOYED" IN SOUTH
The Israeli military said it was "deployed in southern Syria" and "prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages".

Since the collapse of the Assad government late last year, Israeli troops have entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights and have carried out incursions deeper into southern Syria.

It was not immediately clear whether the Israeli army was speaking of a new deployment or how many troops were involved.

A Druze official in the community's heartland in Sweida province, said there had been "no deployment of Israeli soldiers" there.

This week, Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to a united Syria, following clashes between Druze fighters and loyalists of the new government.

The unrest in Sweida and the southern suburbs of the capital was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was unable to confirm its authenticity.