Overnight strikes targeted former army positions, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. Israel has said it aims to keep military equipment away from extremists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli warplanes hit air defence units and “surface-to-surface missile depots”, part of a campaign to destroy regime weapons stockpiles that could fall into the hands of Islamist rebels.

Israel has once again attacked military targets in Syria. Sounds of explosions were heard in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus, among others, where the Russians have military bases. One of the explosions near Tartus was so powerful that it registered as a magnitude three earthquake on seismic sensors in the area.

Israel's "demographic development" plan to increase settler numbers only applies to the area of the Golan Heights that Israel seized during the Six Day War in 1967 and later annexed in 1981 and not to territory taken since al-Assad's ouster.

Israel captured most of the plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, annexing it in 1981. Syria demands Israel withdraw but Israel refuses. Various peace efforts have failed.

Israeli forces patrolled inside a recently-seized demilitarized zone along the border with Syria as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to double the number of Israelis living in the part of the Golan Heights.