Syrian army claims Israel struck targets near Damascus in overnight raids



The Israel Air Force struck Syrian military positions east of Damascus in a series of overnight raids, the Syrian Army said on Tuesday.

According to a statement from Syrian state news agency SANA, Israeli jets flying inside Lebanese airspace fired several missiles toward the al-Qutaifa area at around 2:40 a.m., causing damage near the military site. The regime’s air defenses intercepted the missiles and hit one of the planes, the Syrian Army’s General Command said.



Israel is also said to have fired two surface-to-surface missiles from the Golan Heights at 3:04 a.m. and another four missiles from the area of Tiberias. The Syrian Army statement claimed that all missiles were intercepted but that some damage was caused as a result. “The Israeli aggression affirms again the support of the occupying entity to terrorist organizations in Syria and its desperate attempts to raise their morale after the painful blows they received in Harasta in eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside and the sweeping victories the Syrian Arab Army is achieving in Idlib,” read the army statement.



Local sources reported the sounds of explosions near longrange missile warehouses and other military compounds in the town of Qutayfah, the Qasioun news website reported.


SANA cited the General Command saying the attack was carried out to raise the morale of the “defeated” rebels, warning against the risks posed by such attacks and that it “holds the Israeli entity fully responsible for their repercussions.” The General Command “affirmed its high alert to confront such attacks, continue war against terrorism and to eradicate Israel’s terrorist tools to restore security and stability to all the Syrian territories.

“This flagrant aggression reaffirms Israel’s support for the armed terrorist groups in Syria and its desperate attempts to lift its morale,” the statement read. The Syrian Army holds Israel “fully responsible” for the actions, the statement said.





The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local opposition media reported that the strikes targeted the 155th Brigade where Hezbollah and the Syrian Army have a weapons depot that houses Scud missile launchers.

The brigade is a missile unit.

Israel is reported to have targeted caches of Scud missiles in Syria several times over the past several years, and in March the Syrian military warned that if Israel carried out any further air strikes in the war-torn country, Damascus would respond by firing Scud missiles targeting both civilian areas and military bases.


Lebanon’s Al-Diyar newspaper reported at the time that Damascus prepared four Scud missiles out of its arsenal of 800 that carry half a ton of explosives each, and would fire them without warning if Israel carried out any new strike, “as Israel does not announce their raids against Syrian targets.”

While the IDF has not commented on the reports, as it rarely comments on foreign reports of military activity in Syria, Israel has publicly admitted to having attacked more than 100 Hezbollah convoys and other targets in Syria, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that strikes will continue when “we have information and operational feasibility.”


With the war in Syria winding down with President Bashar Assad as the victor, Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over the growing Iranian presence on the northern borders and the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah from Iran to Lebanon via Syria, stressing that both are redlines for the Jewish state.










The Israeli army overnight carried out air strikes and fired rockets at targets in Syria, causing damage near a military position, the Syrian army said in a statement on Tuesday.
Israel's army has carried out several attacks on the Syrian army and its ally Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011.
The Israeli air force carried out strikes on the Qutayfeh area northeast of Damascus, causing the Syrian army to retaliate and "hit one of its planes", the Syrian army said.
Syrian air defences intercepted one rocket, but several more hit "near a military position, causing material damage," it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the air strikes targeted Syrian army and Hezbollah weapon depots.
The strikes sparked "successive explosions and fires, causing material damage" in the depots, where land-to-land missiles have been stored among other weapons, the Observatory said.
The Syrian army also said Israel launched land-to-land missiles into Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but it intercepted them.











Israeli jets have struck hundreds of targets in Syria for the past five years, returning safely to base after facing no resistance.

Since January 2013, Israel has acknowledged 100 air strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorists, weapon convoys and infrastructure, and it is believed to be behind dozens more, including on early Tuesday morning against a military installation in the al-Qutayfa area east of Damascus.

According to a statement by Syria’s General Command, the regime’s air defenses not only intercepted all of the missiles fired by Israel, but its air defenses even hit one of the jets, a claim made dozens of times by the Syrian regime following alleged Israeli strikes.

While Syria usually refrains from commenting on alleged Israeli strikes and on threats to further strikes, the recent success of the Syrian Army – taking back over 70% of the country from rebels, including the Syrian-held part of the Golan in late December – has upped the regime’s confidence.



While the IDF has not officially commented on the strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to it during a lunch with NATO ambassadors in Jerusalem.

“We have a long-standing policy to prevent the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hezbollah from Syrian territory. This policy has not changed. We back it up as necessary with action,” he said.


It was without a doubt the most serious incident between Israel and Syria since the outbreak of the disastrous civil war, which has recently turned in favor of President Bashar Assad thanks to Russia’s intervention and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias such as Hezbollah.



Iranian entrenchment on the Golan Heights, an area of key strategic importance, has concerned Israel since the start of the conflict, and on Tuesday the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, warned of the proliferation of accurate Iranian missiles in the Middle East.

“The Iranians are coasting into the Middle East undisturbed and with very large forces, in a way that virtually creates an air and land corridor that pours fighters into the region in order to actualize the Iranian vision,” he said at a Finance Ministry event in Jerusalem, adding that “we hear the concerns from Sunni leaders about Iran are growing, just as they are in Israel. We are hearing it from everywhere.”

In early December, Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer reiterated Israel’s position and accused Iran of stoking tensions in Syria. Speaking to Politico, Dermer warned: “If Iran is not rolled back in Syria, then the chances of military confrontation are growing. I don’t want to tell you by the year or by the month. I’d say even by the week,” he said. 


“Because the more they push, we have to enforce our redlines, and you always have the prospects of an escalation, even when parties don’t want an escalation. So in taking action to defend ourselves, you don’t know what could happen. But I think it’s higher than people think.”

Israel’s aerial superiority in the Middle East has been an essential component of its defense strategy for decades, and while Israeli jets are still in control of the skies over Syria, it is only a matter of time before luck runs out.