Israeli warplanes struck suspected chemical weapons depots in Syria, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Gideon Saar said Israel attacked weapons sites “in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists” following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Israel also destroyed weapons and ammunition depots in “intensive air strikes” launched in coastal and southern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

Footage released on Monday showed damage at Mazzeh military airport on the outskirts of Damascus, including destroyed helicopters and jets, where the Israeli military struck nearby weapons depots.

It comes after Israeli troops moved beyond a buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 1973, a move Mr Saar described as a “very limited and temporary step”.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Monday it had reminded Syria of its responsibility to secure any of its remaining stockpiles. 

The OPCW said it removed Assad’s stockpile after a chemical attack killed 1,400 in Damascus in 2013 but said today it had “serious concerns” about the “fate of significant amounts of chemical weapons unaccounted for”.