A US envoy says Israel did not give a warning to the US ahead of a recent Syria air strike

ISTANBUL (AP) — Israel did not warn the United States before it struck an air base in northern Syria this week, despite fears of an escalation with the U.S. and NATO ally Turkey, the U.S. special envoy to Syria said.

Israel usually closely coordinates its military actions with the U.S., its key backer. Washington has tried to use this influence to moderate attacks as Israel carries out operations in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.

Tom Barrack, who also serves as ambassador to Turkey, said the attack on Tuesday on the Abu Duhur base could have been Israel “baiting the Turks … that was the serious and worrying part.”

However, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz contradicted the U.S. envoy’s remarks about there being no warning, saying in a statement that Israel decided to alert senior members of the Syrian government. “Simultaneously, we transferred the intelligence reports to the relevant authorities in the U.S.,” Katz added.

In the wake of the strikes, which caused damage but no casualties, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the base was attacked because Syria was “on the verge of breaching” an agreement by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

Barrack said it was likely that Israel had intelligence suggesting Turkey may be bolstering its presence in the area and “a commander somewhere in the field made a decision ‘We’re not going to let that happen’… What they didn’t do is tell us or Turkey.”

He added that another possible reason for the attack on Abu Duhur, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the Turkish border, was a miscommunication between the Israeli military and the country’s intelligence agency.

“When they (the Turkish military) see these jets coming towards the border and they don’t know what the purpose, direction or intention is, they start to say ‘We’re going to have to scramble our own,’” Barrack said as he outlined how close Israel and Turkey came to direct confrontation.

In 2015, Turkey had shot down a Russian jet over its Syrian frontier. The ambassador’s comments were published on X late Friday by Mario Nawfal, a Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur.

Barrack also said Israel “still” occupies the Golan Heights in violation of U.N. resolutions, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2019 proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the territory, reversing decades of U.S. policy.

Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said the strike on the base was authorized after the “warning wasn’t heeded,” adding there were “clear intelligence reports” of Turkey’s intention to use the base “to harm Israel.” He did not provide further detail.

Barrack’s comments were “full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict” Trump’s position on the Golan Heights, the minister added.

Two Syrian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said on Wednesday that a Turkish delegation had visited the air base in the northwestern province of Idlib a day before the air strike to review reconstruction work underway there.

Israel had raised concerns about Turkish military activity at the air base but the U.S. concluded that was “not happening,” Barrack said.

“The unintended consequence of a mistake could be really consequential,” he added.

Turkey has been supporting Syria’s effort to rebuild its armed forces by training Syrian personnel and supplying equipment and logistical support. The two countries signed an agreement last year that formalized their military cooperation.

Turkish officials have repeatedly stated that Ankara does not consider Syria’s security separate from its own.

Israel, meanwhile, has remained suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus, led by former Islamist insurgents. Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said repeatedly that he does not want a conflict with Israel.

Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes around Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024. The Israeli military also seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria, which it continues to occupy.

Turkey, which recently signed a defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, gave no indication that it would respond militarily to the Israeli strikes in Syria, but the incident added further strain to already tense Turkish-Israeli relations.

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Associated Press writer Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.