A group of soldiers of the Syrian army was documented chanting a jihadi declaration of war on Israel during a military parade in Damascus on Tuesday, prompting a minister for the Jewish state to issue a chilling prediction.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of Diaspora Affairs, posted on X, “War is inevitable.” Chikli embedded a video from Visegrád 24 that showed Syria’s new army marching through Damascus. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attended the military parade.

The footage, according to Fox News Digital’s independent verification of the Arabic, showed them chanting “Gaza, Gaza, our rallying cry, Victory and steadfastness, night & day. We rise against you, enemy, we rise. From mountains of fire we make our way. From my blood I forge my ammunition. From your blood, rivers will flow.”

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In a statement to Fox News Digital about his posts on X, Chikli said, “The harrowing testimonies coming from our Druze brothers about what is happening in Sweida leave no doubt. A regime that kills like ISIS, rapes like ISIS, and destroys like ISIS everything that is not itself — it is ISIS, even if it wears a suit and plays basketball.”

The Trump administration is pushing for a security deal between Syria and Israel that would stabilize the heartland of the Middle East. Al-Sharaa met with Trump in the White House last month.

Speaking at a Jerusalem Post conference on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Tom Barrack, who is U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, said Damascus is not interested in aggression toward Israel, according to the newspaper.

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“Syria joining the anti-ISIS coalition was unthinkable not long ago.” Barrack said the U.S. and Syria have eliminated nine Hezbollah cells and several Islamic State cells over the past few weeks. “After Oct. 7, Israel doesn’t trust anyone,” he said at the event, adding “That’s why we’ve offered to serve as a peacekeeping force. Verification replaces trust.”  

Barrack claimed Jerusalem sees Syria as “the softest play” in the complex Mideast security situation. “Syria has no alternative path,” he said. “And neither does Israel, if it wants to avoid perpetual military confrontation on every border.” He said the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between moderate Sunni states United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Israel, could be expanded to Syria.

The Associated Press reported that al-Sharaa said at a conference over the weekend in Qatar that “There are currently negotiations, and the United States is participating and engaged in those negotiations.”

The Syrian president wants Israel to withdraw its forces from Syria and recommit to a 1974 truce agreement.

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Israel says it seized the 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized buffer zone in southern Syria in a preemptive move to prevent militants from moving into the area after Islamist insurgents toppled Assad.

Israeli troops have regularly carried out operations in villages and towns inside and outside the zone, including raids snatching people it says are suspected militants. At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli operation against suspected terrorists last month.

When questioned about his record as an al Qaeda member (the U.S. scrapped its $10 million bounty for al-Sharaa’s arrest for terrorism last year) at the Doha Forum in Qatar, the Syrian president said: “What is the definition of terrorism or a terrorist? Saying that I was a terrorist and judging me as a terrorist is politicized… we saw wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq — all of those that were killed were innocent.”

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He added that “Judging people as terrorists needs to be proven. There’s been 25 years of us hearing this word in the world, but there’s a lot of confusion in understanding the word ‘terrorist.’ Terrorists, in my opinion, are those who kill innocent people — children and women — and who use illegitimate means to harm people.” He noted that he fought “honorably.”

Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Fox News Digital, “The ongoing security situation in Syria is of the utmost complexity. Israel and Syria, under U.S. mediation, are in highly intensive talks to reach a formal security arrangement between the two countries, while the Iranian regime and its proxies are engaging in armed subversion to prevent any possible agreement between the sides. The United States, CIA and military forces are reportedly deeply involved in securing and stabilizing the situation in Syria, which accounts for President Trump’s recent statements to Israel in helping maintain the framework in Syria.”

He added, “It must be emphasized that Iran’s Hezbollah proxy and associated cells and groups are doing everything to torpedo a security arrangement between the al-Sharaa government and the Israeli government. The Iranian regime and associated terror groups tried to assassinate al-Sharaa several times. They are mobilizing terror cells in southern Syria and sending them toward the Israeli border, which is what has triggered ongoing Israeli counterterrorism strikes, just like we saw in Bet Jinn.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited reserve soldiers who were wounded in clashes with Syrian terrorists in Bet Jinn, where he said, “After Oct. 7, we are determined to defend our communities on our borders, including the northern border, and to prevent the entrenchment of terrorists and hostile actions against us, to protect our Druze allies, and to ensure that the State of Israel is safe from ground attack and other attacks from the border areas.”

He added, “What we expect Syria to do, of course, is to establish a demilitarized buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer zone area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon and the summit of Mount Hermon. We hold these territories to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel, and that is what obligates us. In a good spirit and understanding of these principles, it is also possible to reach an agreement with the Syrians, but we will stand by our principles in any case.”

Strikes hit hills and valleys as Israeli military keeps up pressure, it says, to force Hezbollah to disarm.

Israeli warplanes have carried out at least a dozen attacks across southern Lebanon, targeting what the military claims are Hezbollah training facilities in the latest flagrant near-daily violations that have further undermined a year-old ceasefire.

The raids hit hills and valleys in the Jezzine and Zahrani areas, including locations near al-Aaichiyeh, between al-Zrariyeh and Ansar, and around Jabal al-Rafie and the outskirts of several towns, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.

Israel’s military said it struck a compound used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force for weapons training, claiming the facilities were being used to plan attacks against Israeli forces and civilians.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut described the ceasefire in Lebanon as “a one-sided truce, since Israel has continued near-daily attacks on the country.”

Khodr said the latest attacks avoided densely populated areas. “The locations were in hills and valleys, not population centres,” she said, noting this marked a repeated pattern.

“In fact, just a few days ago, in the middle of the night, they did the same thing.”

The Israeli military said it also hit what it said were rocket-launching sites and other infrastructure, describing the operations as necessary to counter what it deemed violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.

However, the continued bombardment has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations, which reported in November that at least 127 civilians, including children, have been killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect in late 2024. UN officials have warned the attacks amount to “war crimes”.

Khodr explained that the attacks form part of a sustained military pressure campaign.

“This is all part of military pressure on Hezbollah to force it to disarm,” she said. Israel wants the group “to give up its strategic weapons, its long-range weapons, its precision-guided missiles, its drones” which the Israeli military believes are stored in the Bekaa Valley and further inland.

But Hezbollah has sharply refused to relinquish its arsenal as long as Israel bombards and occupies parts of Lebanon. The group “doesn’t want to give up its weapons because it would view that as surrender”, Khodr added, noting that “Hezbollah and Lebanon do not have the upper hand. Israel enjoys air superiority.”

Tensions escalated further two weeks ago when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Hezbollah’s top military commander, Haytham Ali Tabatabai. The group has yet to respond, but said it will do so at the right time.

The attacks come as Lebanon and Israel recently dispatched civilian envoys to a committee monitoring their ceasefire for the first time in decades, a move aimed at expanding diplomatic engagement.

However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem criticised Lebanon’s decision to send former Ambassador Simon Karam to the talks, calling it a “free concession” to Israel.

Lebanese officials have expressed frustration over Israel’s near-daily attacks.

“It is one of the reasons why Lebanon agreed to sit down for face-to-face talks with the Israelis,” Khodr said, “engaging in diplomatic talks that are seen as very sensitive in Lebanon, in the hopes that it would avoid war.”

President Joseph Aoun said last week that Lebanon “has adopted the option of negotiations with Israel” aimed at stopping the continued attacks, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called for a more robust verification mechanism to monitor both Israeli violations and Lebanese army efforts to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure.

“But the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, made it clear a few days ago that even though Lebanon is sitting down in a room with a longtime enemy, it does not mean that the Israeli attacks will stop,” Khodr said.