Israel has seized land along its border with Syria and carried out air strikes on Damascus. Benjamin Netanyahu said IDF troops had captured a buffer zone in the Golan Heights on the same day a lightning rebel offensive toppled the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

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.

Israel says it bombed more than 350 military sites in Syria during the previous 48 hours, targeting "most of the strategic weapons stockpiles" in the country.