Israeli soldiers and peacekeepers of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) (2nd from L) monitor the border with Syria near the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights on September 13, 2016.
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The Syrian army then claimed on Tuesday morning that it had shot down an Israeli warplane and a drone. Israel also regarded Syria as an enemy state and generally prohibits its citizens from going there.
The IDF said that two surface-to-air missiles were launched towards Israeli jets in response to its targeting of Syrian artillery positions, but that the aircraft were not near the source of fire.
The IDF struck targets in Syria on Tuesday in response to mortar fire that hit the Golan Heights.
He said that two surface-to-air missiles had been launched at Israeli aircraft overnight Monday.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 Middle East war.
Yet Lerner claims that, during this raid, “at no point was the safety of IDF aircraft compromised”, and that the SAF’s claims are “completely false”.
Last week, the IDF stated that it holds the regime “accountable for this blatant breach of Israeli sovereignty”, referring to the projectile strikes, and claimed, “the IDF will continue to act in order to safeguard Israel and its civilians”.
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Though Syria has been given some upgraded air defenses by Russia in recent years, they’ve not been enough to seriously protect Syrian airspace from Israeli attacks, and seemingly Israel has free rein in the skies so long as they don’t get too close to Russian bases along the coast.
