Israel war on Gaza could spill over into Syria, UN envoy warns

Israel’s war against the Palestinian resistance group Hamas is spilling over into Syria, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria has said.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Monday, special envoy Geir Pedersen said that instead of just the violence of the 12-year-long civil war in Syria, the people of that country could now face “a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation” after Tel Aviv’s complete siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

“Spillover into Syria is not just a risk; it has already begun,” Pedersen told the Security Council, particularly referring to Israeli air strikes on Syrian airports and the United States’ retaliation against multiple attacks on its forces “by groups that it claims are backed by Iran, including on Syrian territory.”

UAE warns Syrian regime against ‘interference’ in Israeli war on Gaza

He also pointed to the number of Syrians killed, injured and displaced in the country – at its highest since 2020 – especially based on the significant intensification of the Assad regime’s bombardment of civilian and militant sites in north-west Syria. Perderson also cited the various rebel attacks on regime-held sites, such as the graduation ceremony at a military academy in Homs in September.

READ: UAE warns Syrian regime against ‘interference’ in Israeli war on Gaza

According to the envoy, the region is “at its most dangerous and tense”, adding that “fuel is being added to a tinderbox that was already beginning to ignite.”

US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, echoed his concerns by accusing “terrorist groups” – some backed by Syria and Iran – of threatening to expand the conflict in Gaza “by using Syrian territory to plot and launch attacks against Israel.”

She stressed that Washington “has warned all actors not to take advantage of the situation in Gaza to widen or deepen the conflict”, clarifying that “we will respond to attacks on our own personnel and facilities in Syria or against US interests, and, where appropriate, exercise our right to self-defence forcefully, proportionately and in a manner that minimises civilian harm.”