 |
| Responding to Rocket Attacks, Israeli Fighter Jets Attack Syrian Military Complex |
Tel Aviv - Israel said its fighter jets had struck a Syrian military compound, radar systems and artillery outposts in response to rocket attacks fired from Syria. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had started striking targets on Syrian territory after three rockets were launched at Israel from Syria on Saturday evening local time, one of which landed in the southern Golan Heights.
"Moment ago, IDF fighter jets struck additional targets on Syrian territory, including the Syrian Armed Forces' Fourth Division military compound, military radar systems, and artillery posts used by the Syrian Armed Forces," the IDF said in a statement as reported by CNN.
The fighter jet attack followed previous IDF raids on Syrian territory using UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles or drones), which targeted launchers that were suspected of having fired the rockets. The IDF says it sees the Syrian state as responsible for all activities that occur inside its territory and will not allow any attempt to violate Israel's sovereignty.
Syria says it has responded to Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country, and claims to have intercepted several Israeli missiles. "At around 0500 today, the Israeli enemy carried out airstrikes with multiple missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting several points in the southern region," Syrian state media office SANA said, citing a Syrian military source.
According to SANA, the military source added that the Syrian air defenses had intercepted the aggressor missiles and shot down some of them. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War and annexed the narrow strip of land in 1981. The Golan Heights is considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
The news comes after Israel struck Palestinian militant targets in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip early Friday, after dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. The rocket launch came amid heightened tensions in the region following Israeli police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
The Israeli police raid on the mosque is seen by Muslims as a major provocation. Israeli police raided the mosque twice on Wednesday last week, claiming that hundreds of rioters and desecrators of the mosque had barricaded themselves inside.
The warning from Jordan was followed by a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday morning, saying that those who barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa mosque were a dangerous mob, radicalized and instigated by Hamas and other terror organizations.
Israel's Foreign Ministry asked the Jordanian Waqf guards, to immediately remove from al-Aqsa Mosque extremists planning to riot on Sunday during Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount and the Imam's Blessing on the Western Wall. The Waqf is the Jordan-appointed body that administers the al-Aqsa mosque complex, known as the Temple Mount to Jews.