Israel and the Syrian civil war
[5] Between 2013 and September 2018, Israel also provided humanitarian aid to victims of the Syrian civil war, especially following the launching of Operation Good Neighbour in June 2016.The statement was said to have "marked a reversal for Israel, where top officials had from the outset of fighting in 2011 until mid-2015 regularly predicted Assad would lose control of his country and be toppled".He called for the U.S. to be more active ″in the Syrian arena and in the Middle East in general″ and noted that Israel was struggling to deal with the "Russians, Iranians, and also the Turks and Hezbollah.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Putin in August 2017 to share Israel's concerns on the ceasefire agreement."We take the Israeli interests in Syria into account," Alexander Petrovich Shein, Russia's ambassador to Israel, told its Channel One television on Tuesday.[27] A delegation, led by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, visited Washington for talks with senior White House and Pentagon officials.[25] However, the high-level delegation was unable to "secure a commitment from the Americans to ensure any agreement to end the war in Syria would include the evacuation of Iranian military forces from the country".[29] The aid consisted of medical care, water, electricity, education or food and was given to Syrians near the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria, often escorted across by Israeli soldiers.One of the first reliably reported incident of this kind took place on 30 January 2013, when Israeli aircraft struck a Syrian convoy allegedly transporting Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.[35] Habitually, Israel refused to comment on the incident, a stance that is believed to seek to ensure that the Syrian government did not feel obliged to retaliate.In total 18 airstrikes across Deir ez-Zor Governorate killed 57 in what was the highest death toll since Israel started its attacks on Syria.