Israel bombs Syria and seizes territory as Netanyahu pledges to change ‘the face’ of the Middle East

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a rare press conference on Monday evening that the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime was “a new and dramatic chapter.”

“The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” he said. “The axis has not yet disappeared but as I promised – we are changing the face of the Middle East.”