✈️ ISRAEL STRIKES SYRIA, APACHE SQUADRON MOVES AND YEHUDA KATZ RETURNS
🕑 Published: August 19, 2026 · 12:26 AM Israel time
✈️ SYRIA AND REGIONAL AIRPOWER: The Israeli Air Force carried out four overnight strikes on Abu al-Duhur Air Base in eastern Idlib, targeting its runway after footage emerged of Su-22 training flights over northern Syria. The base houses Syria’s fledgling post-Assad air force, including roughly two restored Su-22s, several L-39 trainers and older helicopters.
An Israeli official told Fox News that highly sensitive intelligence had been shared with the United States beforehand and suggested Syrian leader al-Sharaa may not have understood or known what was occurring. Another Israeli official told Axios the strike was intended to prevent a Turkish military buildup. Turkey denied having any presence at the base and accused Israel of using pretexts to strike neighboring countries.
Syria condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and a dangerous escalation. U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack likewise described them as an unnecessary escalation, arguing that the al-Sharaa government had favored de-escalation and that sustained dialogue and restraint offered a more constructive course.
Separately, Syria acknowledged possessing nuclear material remaining from the Assad regime and stated that it considers development of a civilian nuclear program its right.
🚁 IAF APACHE RELOCATION: One of the Israeli Air Force’s two Apache attack-helicopter squadrons is relocating to Ramat David Airbase.
🛡️ BEERSHEBA SECURITY CASE: A serious indictment has been filed against a Bedouin man from the Negev accused of planning an attack on the Forum nightclub in Beersheba using a car bomb.
🕯️ YEHUDA KATZ RETURNED AFTER 44 YEARS: The IDF Intelligence Directorate and Mossad returned the remains of SFC Yehuda Yekutiel Katz to Israel and his family, closing a search that began after the Armored Corps soldier fell in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub on June 11, 1982, during the First Lebanon War.
His remains were located through a joint intelligence effort and identified at the Military Rabbinate’s Fallen Soldiers Identification Center together with the Medical Corps and Israel Police. Katz’s family had been kept informed throughout decades of efforts to locate him; his parents, Sarah and Yosef Katz, did not live to receive the news.
The operation followed more than four decades of work involving the Prime Minister’s Office Missing and Captive Persons Coordinators, Mossad operational units, IDF Intelligence, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the IDF Manpower Directorate. Following the return of Zachary Baumel in 2019 and Tzvika Feldman in 2025, Katz’s return completes the mission to bring back all Israeli soldiers who went missing at Sultan Yacoub.
IDF Chief of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir called Katz’s return a significant national milestone and said the obligation to fallen soldiers had not changed over the decades: “We will leave none of our people behind.”
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