The Israeli bombing of Abu Al-Duhur Military Airport, located about eighty kilometers from the Turkish-Syrian border, constituted a surprising development, as it was the first bombing on the air base located in the far northwest of Syria.
The attack, which was launched by dropping at least eight bombs on the runways and several hangars at the Abu Al-Duhur base, caused damage to the recently rebuilt runways, but no casualties were reported.
Israel confirmed late Tuesday evening (August 18, 2026) that it was behind the air strikes it launched overnight on the Syrian military airport, as it claimed that Turkey was planning to deploy forces there. “Israel and Syria agreed to the status quo in security matters, which Syria was about to violate by allowing Turkish forces to deploy to an air base near Aleppo,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in English.
The Prime Minister's Office said that Israel "has repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel's security." He added: "Syria has chosen to ignore these warnings." But the statement softened its tone at its conclusion by saying that Israel "would welcome a return to the status quo."
In response, Ankara denounced the allegations as “frivolous” made by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, according to a Turkish government statement reported by the official Anadolu news agency, saying they “aim to legitimize the illegal Israeli air strikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Direct American intervention
An unnamed Turkish official also denied to Axios that Ankara was seeking to establish a military presence at Abu Al-Duhur Air Base. The official confirmed, "There was no Turkish presence at the air base. Israel is creating pretexts to bomb neighboring countries and destabilize the region."
US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, who is also the US envoy to Syria, was the first to get in on the line, revealing that Israel was the one who carried out the strike. Barak said the Trump administration was "deeply concerned" and described the strike as "an unnecessary escalation that does not enhance regional stability."
Writer and political analyst Muhammad Qawwas believes that “these strikes raised an accumulation of tensions with Washington, which supports Syria and the Sharaa government, in addition to the excellent relationship between Trump and Erdogan.” Therefore, the strikes “require a new Syrian-Turkish-Israeli mechanism called for by Trump’s envoy Tom Barrack.”
Israeli election calculations
Some senior American officials believe, as reported by the American website Axios, that the strike was motivated in part by the Israeli elections scheduled for October. American officials say that the Syrian government has not taken any hostile steps towards Israel, and has tried for months to reach a new security agreement to calm tensions on the border between the two countries. Axios quoted an American official as saying that the Syrian government had been pressing for weeks to implement an agreement with the United States and Israel to establish a joint coordination center in Jordan aimed at managing such incidents and preventing escalation. The American official said that this is part of the same agreement in which the two countries commit to “freezing military activities.” But Israel refused to activate the coordination center, and instead increased the Israeli army's incursions into southern Syria, according to the American official.
A second US official said: “At a certain point, the Syrian government began to change its position and think that it needed to defend itself against Israeli aggression,” according to Axios. He added that the Trump administration asked the Syrian government to exercise restraint, stressing that it would be easier to address this issue after the Israeli elections.
Political analyst Dr. Muhammad Kawas partly agrees with this proposition, considering that “the strikes have electoral purposes.”
But there are other purposes, Qawas added in his interview with DW Arabia. Unlike an Israeli bombing that previously targeted Syrian military capabilities dating back to the previous era, “Israel this time bombed modern military capabilities that restricted the formation of the Syrian army.”
Türkiye seeks to fill the void
Türkiye, which has the second-largest army in NATO and this month signed a joint defense agreement with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, has become one of the main allies of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Ankara is training the Syrian army, helping it rebuild state institutions and infrastructure, and providing it with military and diplomatic support.
US envoy Barak, a close friend of President Donald Trump, using the Turkish name for Turkey, said the Israeli strikes on the Syrian air base “reflect a perception – whether accurate or false – that Turkey may increase its presence at that base in the near future.”
In an interview with DW Arabia, writer Muhammad Qawwas believes that the Syrian Abu al-Duhur Airport “enjoys strategic importance by virtue of its location and size and its rehabilitation in parallel with recent air maneuvers. This means that the airport is a cornerstone for rebuilding the air force.” Kawas believes that "the danger of the strikes is that they harm Turkish interests and threaten Ankara's growing influence after the decline of Russian influence."
Is there a way to reach an understanding or is escalation the only option?
Although Türkiye and Israel established a communication channel last year with the aim of preventing military incidents in Syria. But recent strikes indicate that current mechanisms may not be sufficient to manage increased competition.
Experts believe that the risk of direct confrontation is still limited, but this possibility cannot be ruled out. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and has one of the largest armies in the region. While Israel has a highly efficient air force and extensive intelligence capabilities. Neither country has a clear interest in entering into a long-term conflict with the other. But the danger lies in their competing operations in Syria.
US envoy Barak said in his statements to Reuters: “This confirms the necessity of a dispute resolution mechanism that includes Israel, Syria and Turkey. This is what we are working hard on to prevent misunderstandings in the future,” he said. “The priority now is to ease tensions and make room for a more balanced approach.”
In the recent period, Syria and Israel held several rounds of de-escalation and border talks, since the overthrow of the Assad regime, but no agreement was reached. “An incident of this kind that occurred this morning shows the need to intensify these efforts and expand the scope of the operation,” Barak said.
Expert Muhammad Qawwas said in his interview with DW Arabia that “Washington is expected to intervene intensively to control the escalation and prevent it from spiraling towards a Turkish-Israeli clash, according to what Barak warns. It may respond to the strike by further deploying Turkish military equipment in Syria, knowing that the crisis has an electoral timing that may disappear after the elections.”
