🇮🇱❌🇸🇾 — Israeli government approves plans to expand settlements in Golan Heights

🇸🇾❌🇮🇱🇮🇱 — Israel's prime minister Netanyahu:

➡️We will continue to control and settle in the Golan.

➡️The government unanimously approved encouraging population growth in Golan settlements at a cost of more than $40 million.

🇸🇾🇮🇷🇱🇧❌🇮🇱🇮🇱 — Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

I said a year ago that we would change the Middle East, and we are already changing it. Syria is not what it was, Lebanon has changed, Gaza has changed, and even Iran - the head of the axis - is not what it was.

🇸🇾⁉️🇮🇱🇮🇱 — Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

➡️We have no interest in conflict with Syria, but we will determine our policy based on the changing reality.

➡️In recent days, we have destroyed capabilities that the Assad regime built over decades to prevent the use of dangerous weapons against us again.

🇱🇧❌🇮🇱🇮🇱 — Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

➡️We targeted the weapons transfer routes from Syria to Hezbollah, and the Secretary-General of Hezbollah admitted the loss of the military supply route through Syria.

➡️We are committed to preventing Hezbollah from rearming.

➡️We will continue to act against Iran and Hezbollah in every arena and at any time to prevent them from harming us.

🇸🇾 — New de facto president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani), in a press interview:

➡️There will be no compulsory conscription in the country

➡️We will study raising salaries by 400% in Syria, and the first priorities are to rebuild destroyed homes and return the displaced.

➡️All factions will be dissolved and there will be no weapons except in the hands of the state.

🇸🇾🇸🇾 — The Military Recruitment Administration (affiliated with HTS) has announced the opening of enrollment for training and membership in the faction.

➡️This comes despite a statement earlier today by HTS leader and de facto Syrian president Abu Mohammad al-Golani, who declared that all factions would be dissolved and that weapons would be centralized under state control. However, HTS appears to be continuing its expansion and consolidation of power.

📝My opinion: It seems Golani might be modeling HTS after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which played a crucial role in consolidating power after the Iranian Revolution. This approach contrasts with the first Iranian revolution, which ultimately failed.

🇺🇸🇮🇱😘🇵🇸❌🇵🇸 — 📰Axios quoting officials:

➡️The Biden administration asked Israel to approve US military assistance for the security of the Authority in the West Bank.

➡️The operation focuses on a local armed group.

➡️The operation carried out by the PA security is a decisive moment for the Palestinian Authority.

➡️US aid to PA security forces aims to support its extensive operation in the West Bank.

➡️The operation is driven by fear of an attempt by Islamic extremists to overthrow the government, influenced by what happened in Syria.

🇺🇸🇮🇱😘🇵🇸❌🇵🇸— 📰Axios quoting officials:

➡️Palestinian "president" Abbas ordered security leaders to launch an operation to control Jenin and its camp, and some expressed reservations.

➡️Abbas's aides briefed the Biden administration and President-elect Trump's advisers in advance on the operation.

➡️US Security Coordinator Mike Finzel met with PA security leaders before the operation to review their plans.

🇮🇱❌🇵🇸 — Israel bombed a school where displaced families have been staying at.

🇮🇱🎥🇸🇾 — Israeli channel i24, the channel that kicked off the 40 beheaded babies story at the start of the war in Gaza was seen in Damascus a few days ago covering the celebrations.

🇮🇱🤝🇸🇾 Israel did not want Assad removed from power, US officials tell Turkey

US officials informed Turkey earlier this month that Israel did not want Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power, even after the rebel offensive that seized cities such as Aleppo and Hama, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan revealed in an interview on Sunday.

“Israel has never wanted Bashar to leave,” Fidan told Al Hadath TV.

“Israel was displeased with the space Bashar had granted to the Iranians. Even after the rebel operation began, the Americans conveyed to us that Israel does not want Bashar to go, even until last day.”

Fidan further disclosed that during a 2016 visit to Turkey, then-US Vice President Joe Biden had informed Ankara that Washington opposed toppling Assad.

“He told us that the US doesn’t want Bashar to go,” Fidan said. “We understood that this wasn’t truly his own stance but rather Israel’s position.”

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-did-not-want-assad-removed-power-us-officials-tell-turkey

🇮🇱❌🇸🇾 — From the Israeli airstrikes on Tartus, seems like the explosion has reached a family that was recording the airstrikes or a direct airstrike has targeted them.