The rebels capturing Damascus marked a turning point for Syria, which had been shattered by more than 13 years of war which turned cities to rubble, killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee abroad as refugees.

Israel’s military has seized a strategic mountain top in its contested border area with Syria and advanced on positions beyond it, reshaping the frontier potentially for the long term.

Qaeda spin-off HTS will come in two flavours only. Either submit and collude like the West Bank, or end up wrecked like Gaza There has been a flurry of “What next for Syria?” articles in the wake of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s hurried exit from Syria and the takeover of much of the country by al-Qaeda’s rebranded local forces.

Israel is celebrating the fall of Assad because it breaks the noose that Iran had been patiently tightening around Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Tehran’s pincer is now broken and rendered useless. From the point of view of Israel’s wider conflict with the Islamic Republic, the collapse of Assad’s regime is a strategic victory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tice's mother his country won't conduct airstrikes near a secret prison outside Damascus.

The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the U.N. after the 1973 Mideast war. A

Assad’s fall to bomb all the Syrian military assets it wanted to keep out of the rebels’ hands – striking nearly 500 targets, destroying the navy, and taking out, it claims, 90% of Syria’s known surface-to-air missiles.

The Israeli military hit weapons depots and air defenses, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel has said it aims to keep military equipment away from extremists.

Israel says the move is necessary following the takeover of neighbouring Syria by an Islamist-led rebel alliance.

Israel has paved the way for a decisive strike against Iran’s nuclear programme by eliminating swathes of Syria’s military infrastructure, according to officials speaking to The Telegraph following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire.