Israeli jets destroyed a weapons facility in western Syria on Wednesday night, according to Lebanese media.
The Syrian army’s 72nd Brigade was said to have fired anti-aircraft missiles at the Israeli Air Force jets, though there were no reports of planes being shot down.
The IDF refused to comment on the alleged strike, in accordance with its policy not to acknowledge raids across the border.
Some Lebanese media identified the target as a weapons warehouse, while others said it was a manufacturing facility. There was no immediate mention of who operated it.
However, Israel has said repeatedly that it will thwart attempts by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group to acquire advanced weaponry.
According to the Lebanon 24 outlet, the Israeli jets carried out the strike from eastern Lebanese airspace.
The target of the alleged strike was said to be in Syria’s Homs governorate, between the city of the same name and Damascus.
Lebanese citizens in the city of Baalbek, near the Syrian border, reported hearing loud explosions.
Earlier in the night, residents of eastern Lebanon reported seeing Israeli jets flying overhead.
In March, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman threatened that if the Syrian military fired its air defenses at Israeli jets “we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation.”
Last month, the IDF bombed a Syrian anti-aircraft battery after it fired an interceptor missile at an Israeli reconnaissance plane that Israel says was flying over Lebanon.
Israel's air force attacked a weapons depot situated in rural areas around Hisya, south of the Syrian city of Homs, Arab media reported Wednesday night.
Several reports claimed that the Syrian military launched a surface-to-air missile against Israeli jets from its 72nd Divison Base but did not hit them.
Several reports claimed that the Syrian military launched a surface-to-air missile against Israeli jets from its 72nd Divison Base but did not hit them.
A commander in a military alliance fighting in support of the Syrian government told Reuters that the IAF struck a copper factory south of Homs, and did not provide details regarding any casualties.
Channel 10 reported that the aircraft were not hit and returned safely to base.
This is the third strike in Syria attributed to Israel in recent weeks.
Two weeks ago, the IAF attacked and destroyed a Syrian SA-5 anti-aircraft battery east of Damascus after it fired a surface-to-air missile at Israeli jets.
Channel 10 reported that the aircraft were not hit and returned safely to base.
This is the third strike in Syria attributed to Israel in recent weeks.
Two weeks ago, the IAF attacked and destroyed a Syrian SA-5 anti-aircraft battery east of Damascus after it fired a surface-to-air missile at Israeli jets.
The SA-5 missile battery, which was stationed some 50 kilometers east of the Syrian capital, fired at Israeli jets that were on a routine aerial reconnaissance flight in Lebanese airspace.
Five days later, the IDF hit three Syrian regime artillery positions following five projectiles that were launched towards Israel earlier that morning.
Three of the five projectiles landed in open territory in Israel’s northern Golan Heights, causing no damage or injuries.
After the mid-October attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented: “Our policy is clear: anyone who tries to harm us will be hit. Today they tried to hit our planes, which is unacceptable to us.”
Netanyahu said the IAF acted with “precision and speed,” and “destroyed what needed to be destroyed. We will continue to act as is needed to protect Israel’s security.”
Five days later, the IDF hit three Syrian regime artillery positions following five projectiles that were launched towards Israel earlier that morning.
Three of the five projectiles landed in open territory in Israel’s northern Golan Heights, causing no damage or injuries.
After the mid-October attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented: “Our policy is clear: anyone who tries to harm us will be hit. Today they tried to hit our planes, which is unacceptable to us.”
Netanyahu said the IAF acted with “precision and speed,” and “destroyed what needed to be destroyed. We will continue to act as is needed to protect Israel’s security.”
Various reports coming from Lebanese sources Wednesday night, Nov. 1, at around 21.00 hours alternately described unusually heavy Israeli Air Force flights over Syria near the Lebanese border or an Israeli air attack on Al Qusay in the Qalamoun Mountains which straddle that border.
Then, at around 22:30, Lebanese and Syrian sources began claiming that Israeli planes flew over Baalbek in eastern Lebanon and struck Syrian military targets near Homs.
Hizballah’s television station Mayadin added that the Israel air attack targeted the Hisya industrial complex in the countryside of Homs and the Syrian army fired one or more anti-air missiles in an attempt to down the Israeli planes. They also described huge explosions heard far away, indicating that the location under attack was a plant, depot or convoy packed with ammunition or weaponry of some kind.
No official sources in Israel, Syria or Lebanon have confirmed any of these reports.
The reported Israeli air assault on a presumed military target in Syria, if confirmed, while President Vladimir Putin was in Tehran talking with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has special significance. Syria’s air defense command operates under the Russian command, and so the Russian officers on the spot would have given the green light for Syrian missile fire and briefed Putin on the course of events.
This would have been the second time in the past fortnight for a Russian-Syrian anti-air missile to be launched against Israeli warplanes. On Oct. 16, a Syrian SA-5 battery based east of Damascus released missiles in an attempt to intercept Israeli flights over Lebanon. Israel retaliated with an air strike that smashed the battery.
The threat of retaliation by Islamic Jihad is not over yet, a senior commander in the IDF Southern Command said on Wednesday, two days after the IDF blew up a tunnel that ran from the Gaza Strip to Israel, an operation in which nine terrorists were killed and five are said to be missing.
“I believe that it will be hard for them to hold back, and there is a possibility that they already decided what their answer will look like,” he said.
“I believe that it will be hard for them to hold back, and there is a possibility that they already decided what their answer will look like,” he said.
“They are now in a dilemma. They have restraints coming from Hamas, which wishes to advance the reconciliation [with Fatah], but on the other hand they have their own agenda, and they receive directions from Iran.
“I do not rule out a possibility in which the Iranians, who influence Islamic Jihad, will take advantage of the retaliation option in order to harm the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,” the commander said.
Two of the terrorists who were killed in the tunnel were senior commanders in the al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, according to media reports. Soldiers from Hamas’s navy commandos were also among those who were killed. It is believed that they were killed at the Palestinian side of the tunnel a short time after the explosion, while they were inside trying to rescue others who were trapped.
The tunnel ran from the southern town of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip to approximately two kilometers from the border community of Kissufim.
“I do not rule out a possibility in which the Iranians, who influence Islamic Jihad, will take advantage of the retaliation option in order to harm the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,” the commander said.
Two of the terrorists who were killed in the tunnel were senior commanders in the al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, according to media reports. Soldiers from Hamas’s navy commandos were also among those who were killed. It is believed that they were killed at the Palestinian side of the tunnel a short time after the explosion, while they were inside trying to rescue others who were trapped.
The tunnel ran from the southern town of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip to approximately two kilometers from the border community of Kissufim.
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