Israel has attacked Syrian military assets and has troops operating in the Golan buffer zone and slightly beyond.

The Israeli military says it has been targeting weapons stockpiles in Syria with hundreds of strikes since the fall of the Assad regime in an effort to keep the weapons away from extremists. CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata has more on the strikes.

Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria's navy.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose name means Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, was the main rebel group leading the latest offensive, launching a surprise assault in late November from northwestern Syria that quickly led to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. It is now leading the transition to a new Syrian government.

Israeli leaders are broadcasting optimism about the fall of Assad, a brutal dictator and key Iranian ally, while girding themselves for the ascension of the jihadist-linked group that toppled him.

The news comes a day after Syria’s new interim leader Mohammed al-Bashir announced he was assuming the role of the country’s caretaker prime minister until March 1. Bashir previously served as the head of the rebel administration’s self-formed “salvation government.