ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Israeli military chief of staff toured southern Syria early Wednesday, saying Israel will not allow “hostile forces” to establish positions near its borders, a day after a rare Israeli airstrike on a Syrian airbase reportedly intended to host Turkish forces.

Eyal Zamir toured the Israeli-occupied areas in southern Syria Wednesday morning, Israeli media reported. He was joined by high-ranking officers and received a briefing regarding the security situation.

The development comes a day after the Israeli military conducted eight airstrikes against Abu al-Duhur military airbase in the northwestern Idlib province, causing material damage but no injuries. Israel said the attack was prompted by Ankara’s plans to deploy Turkish forces at the airport.

The attack was condemned by Damascus, calling the strike an “unjustified act of aggression” and a violation of the country’s territorial integrity.  A large number of regional countries also denounced the offensive as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

“We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves within our borders and we will know how to use our power precisely where and when needed,” Zamir said in remarks carried by the military’s X account, adding that “we are seeing what is happening and monitoring the changes on the Syrian front.”

In addition to the Golan Heights, Israel has launched repeated incursions into southwest Syria’s Quneitra countryside since the new Syrian leadership came to power, conducting arrest sprees, raids, and setting up checkpoints.

After the new authorities in Damascus toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli forces to complete the takeover of the 1974 buffer zone in the Golan Heights, separating the two states, claiming that the 1974 Disengagement Agreement was void until order was restored in Syria.

In January, high-level Syrian and Israeli delegations held a US-mediated meeting to resume negotiations over a security arrangement.