ISRAEL PERSPECTIVE

Jerusalem, July 8, 2026. The Israeli government is closely monitoring the explosions that hit Damascus on Tuesday, during Emmanuel Macron's visit, which the Israeli security press sees as confirmation of its reservations about the solidity of Ahmad al-Sharaa's power, the former Islamist rebel leader who became Syrian president after Bashar al-Assad's fall in late 2024.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the explosive devices - one hidden in a trash can and the other placed in a vehicle - detonated in a busy neighborhood of Damascus, between the Ministry of Tourism and the National Museum, across from the Four Seasons hotel where the French president had spent the night and met with civil society representatives. Syrian authorities reported 18 injured, including four police officers. Ynetnews, citing a security source, notes that Mr. Macron had left the area about 15 minutes before the blasts, en route to the presidential palace to meet with Ahmad al-Sharaa.

The Israeli press points out that the attack did not interrupt the visit: the French president maintained his schedule, stating on X that "nothing can stifle the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign Syria." He then announced, alongside Ahmad al-Sharaa, that France would help rebuild the Syrian banking sector and return 51 million euros in assets confiscated from Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of the former leader.

For Israeli media, the episode illustrates the risky bet that the international rehabilitation of a power born from the jihadist movement represents in the eyes of the West, while Jerusalem remains cautious towards Ahmad al-Sharaa. The Jerusalem Post notes that Macron becomes the first leader of a major Western power to visit Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, after already receiving al-Sharaa at the Élysée in May 2025. Other leaders - Volodymyr Zelensky in April, Ursula von der Leyen in January - had preceded Macron to Damascus without incident of this magnitude.

No Israeli media outlet consulted establishes a direct link between the attack and Israel; attention focuses on the persistent fragility of the post-Assad transition, a theme that fuels the Israeli security debate on the Syrian border. Ynetnews notes that members of the security forces loyal to al-Sharaa were among the injured, a sign of unresolved internal tensions within the new Syrian security apparatus.