Israeli warplanes and ground-to-ground missiles struck Syria earlier this week according to the country’s army chiefs.
The attack came in light of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating that he would do what was “necessary” to prevent Hezbollah possessing “game-changing” Iranian weapons.
The Syrian army said in a statement carried by state television that Israeli jets fired missiles at the al-Qutaifa area near Damascus from inside Lebanese airspace on Tuesday at 2:40 am (0040 GMT) and Syrian air defences hit one of the planes.
Israel then fired rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but the Syrian defences brought them down, the army said, adding that Israeli jets fired a final barrage of four rockets from inside Israel, one of which was intercepted by Syrian air defences while the others caused material damage.
Israel has pledged to stop Syrian territory being used for Iran to set up bases for the transfer of high-quality weaponry to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, who have been helping the Assad regime fight its six-year-old rebellion.
The Israeli military declined to comment, although the Israeli air force chief last August disclosed that their corps had struck Syria around 100 times.
The Zionist entity’s policy is generally not to confirm or deny such operations.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to a reporter’s question about the strikes that Israel’s policy was to stop Hezbollah moving “game-changing weapons” out of Syria.
Netanyahu refused to confirm or deny the bombardment but issued an unusually defiant statement when asked by reporters, declaring Israel would see through its policy of preventing Hezbollah from arming itself in Lebanon “with action”.
In its statement, the Syrian army repeated previous warnings of serious repercussions for the strikes and repeated its past accusation that Israel was using attacks to support rebel groups in Syria.
