Israeli warplanes pounded a Syrian air base in the country's northwest before dawn on Tuesday, firing eight strikes that tore craters into the runway and hit storage facilities — a raid Israel says was launched to stop Turkish troops from setting up shop next door, according to NPR.

The target, Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib province, was hit hours after a Turkish military delegation had reportedly left the site, according to the Washington Post. Syrian state television said the strikes caused damage but no casualties.

"On the verge of breaching"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office didn't mince words, declaring that Damascus had been "on the verge of breaching" an unwritten security understanding by allowing Turkish forces near the base — a move Israel insists it warned against repeatedly.

"ISRAEL REPEATEDLY WARNED SYRIA THAT SUCH A DEPLOYMENT WOULD POSE A THREAT TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY." — NETANYAHU'S OFFICE

Turkey shot back hard. Ankara's communications directorate accused Netanyahu of inventing "untenable allegations" to legitimize what it called unlawful attacks on Syrian sovereignty, and a Turkish source said it had no military presence at the base at all, per Al Jazeera. Syria's foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, called the raid "an unjustified provocation, a violation of Syria's sovereignty, and a direct threat to regional and global stability."

Washington caught in the middle

Even Israel's closest ally sounded alarmed. Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, said Washington was "deeply concerned" the strikes amounted to "an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability," a rare public rebuke aired by The Jerusalem Post.

The bombing run is the latest flashpoint in a simmering Israel-Turkey rivalry for influence in Syria that has intensified since Bashar al-Assad's government collapsed in December 2024, leaving a security vacuum both regional powers have moved to fill — Turkey by cultivating close ties with Damascus's new leadership, and Israel by carving out a buffer zone and striking any military buildup it deems threatening near its border.

Regional powers including Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also condemned the strikes, underscoring how quickly a single runway raid has pulled in the wider Middle East. Neither Ankara nor Jerusalem has signaled any pullback, leaving open the question of whether Tuesday's strikes were a one-off warning shot — or the opening move in a longer confrontation over who controls Syria's skies.