Israel's role in the Syrian civil war

Israel's official position on the Syrian Civil War has been strict neutrality. However, Israel has become involved politically and militarily to prevent the growing influence and entrenchment of Iranian forces and its proxies throughout Syria.^[1] Israel's military activity, officially called Operation Chess,^[2] has primarily been limited to missile and air strikes targeting Iranian facilities in Syria as well as those of its proxies, especially Hezbollah.^[3][4] These attacks were not officially acknowledged before 2017. Israel has also carried out air strikes in Syria to disrupt weapons shipments to Hezbollah. By August 2022, the UK investigative non-profit Airwars estimated that 17-45 civilians were killed and another 42-101 civilians were wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Syria since 2013. Syrian reports place these figures much lower than other foreign actors in the conflict.^[5] Israel has also provided humanitarian aid to victims of the civil war from 2013 to September 2018, an effort that was ramped up after June 2016 with the launch of Operation Good Neighbour.