Netanyahu: Strikes in Syria targeted Hezbollah arms

In a rare statement, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to having carried out aerial strikes in Syria and intercepted missiles launched at its aircraft from the ground.

After Israeli Air Force planes struck several targets in Syria on Thursday night, Damascus retaliated by activating its air defense systems and firing a number of missiles at Israeli jets, according to Haaretz.

“(Our) aircraft was at no point compromised”, army spokesman Peter Lerner said.

“It was important for me that even if an agreement took time, that Israel’s position will remain clear”, Netanyahu said. “When we identify attempts to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, and we have the intelligence and operational feasibility, we will act to prevent”. “I told Putin this would threaten stability and hurt the possibility of achieving a political settlement in Syria”, Netanyahu said.

President Bashar al-Assad’s position has been strengthened in recent months with his forces reclaiming all of Syria’s second city Aleppo, as well as enjoying continuing Russian support.

Last September, Syrian forces fired two missiles at Israeli jets conducting a raid inside Syria, which was carried out in response to mortars that had been fired into Israel.

However, Arrow is created to intercept long-range ballistic missiles high in the stratosphere, so it was unclear why the system would have been used in this case.

Palmyra, once held by ISIS and retaken by the Syrian government, is strategically important to both the regime and its opponents.

“As part of its right to defend the sanctity of its territory, the Syrian air defense responded to this aggression and shot down one of the planes while the rest of them were forced to flee”, the Ministry added.

The Arrow system is created to intercept long-range threats and can take out targets outside Earth’s atmosphere, the Israeli military said.

There was no immediate comment from the Lebanon-based group.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hezbollah leader said that the United Nations could not be trusted to defend the Arabs’ rights in the wake of the resignation of a UN official for refusing to withdraw a damning report against Israel.