Israel struck ‘thousands’ of Iranian targets in Syria - Outgoing IDF chief

Gadi Eisenkot tells The New York Times that Tehran-backed forces fleeing due to IDF operation, says Israel has ‘complete’ military, intelligence superiority in the region

The outgoing IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot on Friday said that Israel has carried out “thousands” of airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria in recent years.

In an interview to the New York Times ahead of his retirement next week, Eisenkot for the first time confirmed Israel’s ongoing military campaign to thwart Iranian entrenchment in Syria.

Eisenkot said Israel in the last two years shifted its focus to Iran, its primary enemy, to prevent the IDF from getting bogged down in fighting secondary enemies like Hamas in Gaza.

“When you fight for many years against a weak enemy,” he said, “it also weakens you.”

At first, Eisenkot said Israeli operations in Syria operated under a “certain threshold,” referring to the IDF restricting strikes to weapons shipments bound for Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy group Hezbollah during the first few years of the war that broke out in 2011.

But in the years that followed, he said Iran made a “significant change” in its Syria strategy, and began importing manpower from around the Muslim world in a bid to solidify its hold in the country.

Based on The Times of Israel