Israel worked behind the Syrian rebels?

Nearly 13 years after the start of the civil war, Syrian rebels suddenly became active. 

How they took over Syria in just two weeks, where they couldn't overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in the last thirteen years. It is almost confirmed that it is not possible without the cooperation of a powerful country. However, it is not cleared that which country worked behind it. However, some recent comments from the rebels hinted that Israeli support would work behind them.

The rebel group that ousted Assad is called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a separatist group of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The group's leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, joined al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2003.

Julani was captured by US forces in Iraq in 2006 and held for five years. After his release, al-Julani was later tasked with establishing the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Al-Julani was working with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State in Iraq, at that time. In 2013, Baghdadi abruptly announced his separation from al-Qaeda and founded ISIS.

Al-Julani rejected the change, maintaining his loyalty to al-Qaeda. In the following years, al-Julani distanced himself from al-Qaeda's project of establishing a "global caliphate" in Muslim-majority countries. At that time, he limited his activities inside Syria. Julani recently gave an interview to CNN. He was seen wearing Western-style pants and a shirt instead of traditional Muslim clothing there.

Several HTS operatives spoke to Israeli media after they captured Aleppo in late November. They praised the regime of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered Israel to carry out a shameless massacre in Gaza.

Time of India reported that Syrian rebels praised Israel for bombing Hezbollah, and they gave credit to Israel's war against Lebanon for helping them capture Aleppo.

A Syrian rebel commander has told Israel's Channel 12 that they want to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and form a new government with good relations with all countries in the region, "including Israel."

Israel was directly supporting al-Qaeda-linked "rebels" in Syria. This was publicly acknowledged in 2019 by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli military, IDF, Gadi Eisenkot. He stated that Israel had provided weapons to Syrian rebels to overthrow the government of President Assad.

Israel has directly aided not only the rebels but also al-Qaeda in Syria. In 2015, the Times of Israel reported that “Israel has opened its border with Syria to allow medical treatment for Nusra Front and al-Qaeda fighters wounded in the ongoing civil war.”

Overall, it seems that Israel has created a proxy group there to free Syria from Iranian influence and expand regional dominance.