At a distance of 25 kilometers from the capital of Syria, Damascus, there are armored vehicles of the Israeli forces, Reuters reports citing two regional security sources and one Syrian security source.

According to the specific sources, they are moving southwest of Damascus, after Israel seized a buffer zone in southern Syria and launched airstrikes on the Syrian army and air bases overnight.

Israeli troops appear to have even reached Qatana, which lies 10 kilometers inside Syrian territory east of a demilitarized zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.

The sources told Reuters that Israeli planes bombed at least three major Syrian army bases housing dozens of helicopters and jets in the biggest wave of such attacks on air bases since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

The IDF denies it

The IDF, however, denied the report, insisting that the IDF was only operating within the neutral zone on the border between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights.

“Reports circulating in some media claiming that IDF troops are advancing or approaching Damascus are completely false”noted Col. Avicei Andrae, the IDF’s Arabic-speaking spokesman at X.

“IDF troops are present inside the buffer zone and in defensive positions near the border in order to protect the Israeli border,” he added.