Last week, Israel carried out a raid targeting the runway of Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase, a largely inactive facility with no flights taking place. The strikes did not appear to achieve any significant military objective, beyond causing minor damage.
The significance of the Israeli attack at this particular time and place, however, stems from several intertwined factors.
The base is located in Idlib, around 70 kilometres from the Turkish border, and Israeli officials explicitly framed the attack as a message to Turkey. Ankara could easily have assumed the Israeli jets were targeting its territory, and activated defensive measures.
Israeli officials swiftly took to social media to justify the attack on security grounds.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued: "We will not tolerate a Turkish military entrenchment that advances southward, because it threatens us. We conveyed that message: Don’t. But apparently they didn't hear it, so we made sure they understood it better."
