Iran rejected Israeli claims of destroying its base in Syria. Iran said the country has no forces operating in Syria.

Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council said Sunday that Israeli military’s statement about hitting Iranian sites on Syria are lies.

“This is a lie and is not true,” Rezaei, a former chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), told local media adding, “America [U.S.] and Israel do not have the power to attack Iran’s centers and positions and the Zionist regime’s claims about targeting Iranian positions are lies.”

An Israeli military spokesperson claimed that an Israeli aircraft Saturday struck Iranian forces near Damascus that had been allegedly planning to launch “killer drones” at targets in Israel.

“The strike targeted Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militias which were preparing to advance attack plans targeting sites in Israel from within Syria over the last number of days,” the military said in a statement in a rare acknowledgment.

The elite Quds Force is the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters the forces Thursday had been preparing to launch “killer drones” armed with explosives at northern Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had thwarted the planned Iranian attack. “Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression,” he said on Twitter.

Syrian state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” over Damascus, the capital, Saturday night.

“The aggression is ongoing and air defenses are confronting hostile targets and are downing most of them in the southern region,” state media outlet SANA said, indicating areas south of Damascus.

The Syrian army said in a statement that “the majority of the Israeli missiles were destroyed before reaching their targets.”

“Measures taken jointly by Israel and America in Syria and Iraq are against international regulations and defense forces of Syria and Iraq will soon respond to them,” Rezaei said.

Iran has said in the past also that it has no forces operating from Syria and only gave military advise to the country. Syria also rejected claims of the Iranian army in the country. </s> JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel shot down an Iranian drone over Israeli territory early Saturday morning, sparking a series of events that many feared could lead to an escalation in hostilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iranian drone incident on Saturday shows that "our warnings were 100 percent correct.

"I have been warning for some time about the dangers of Iran's military entrenchment in Syria," Netanyahu said in a statement released Saturday evening. "Iran seeks to use Syrian territory to attack Israel for its professed goal of destroying Israel. This morning Iran brazenly violated Israel's sovereignty. They dispatched an Iranian drone from Syrian territory into Israel. And this demonstrates that our warnings were 100% correct. Israel holds Iran and its Syrian hosts responsible for today's aggression. We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect our sovereignty and our security."

In response to the drone penetration, Israel targeted a number of Iranian military sites in Syria, including its "aircraft's launch components in Syrian territory," the IDF said.

"The IDF sees the Iranian attack and the Syrian response as a severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement following the initial incident.

During the attack, Syria fired multiple anti-aircraft missiles at IAF aircraft.

An Israeli F-16 crashed inside Israel, but the pilots were able to eject and land inside Israel. One pilot is in serious but stable condition; the second was injured lightly.

 

 Israel then mounted a second – what the IDF termed a "large-scale attack" – against the Syrian air defense system and Iranian targets inside Syria. According to a statement, they hit 12 targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four targets that are part of Iran's military establishment in Syria.

The anti-aircraft missiles fired toward Israel triggered air raid sirens, sending residents of northern Israel to bomb shelters early in the morning.

But by midday tourists were back out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in Israel.

The IDF said it would "act determinately against such severe violations of Israeli sovereignty by Iran and Syria."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of his security cabinet on the Sabbath – a day when much of Israel is closed.

Last week, during a visit to the northern border, Netanyahu said Israel wants peace but was prepared for any scenario.

According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the military alliance of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran and Hezbollah, warned Israel that any further act of what it called "terrorism" would elicit a "severe and serious response."

Iran accused Israel of lying about the drone entering Israeli air space, saying it uses drones to fight ISIS in Syria.

In a conference call, Brig. General (ret.) Yossi Kupperwasser, former director-general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and former head of the IDF's Intelligence Research and Assessment Division, told journalists he believes what happened this morning was "an attempt of the Iranians to shape the situation in Syria toward the end of the civil war" for their own interests.

"They want to turn Syria into an Iranian base from which they can threaten Israel both with their military capabilities and with their terror-supported capabilities," he explained. "They also want to turn Syria into an area from which they can transfer weapons to their surrogates, mainly Hezbollah."

 

 According to Kupperwasser, because Israel has been trying hard to prevent that from happening, Iran is upping the ante by doing two things it hadn't done previously: attempting to strike or attack inside Israel, as they did this morning using the UAV, and attempting to build Iranian military industry inside Lebanon to provide Hezbollah with advanced weaponry.

Netanyahu discussed these matters with Russian President Putin on his recent trip to Moscow. But Kupperwasser said obviously Russia didn't put restrictions on Iran.

"Israel responded in a very strong manner and in the context of this exchange we lost a plane. Clearly it didn't stop Israel from making sure its messages were received on the other side – that we will not tolerate this kind of thing," he said.

He added that the Russians, Iranians and Syrians "will have to study" the incident. And that it showed that Israel is the only power in the Middle East willing to confront Iran. </s> TEL AVIV – The IDF spokesperson’s unit on Sunday released a video of Iranian forces in Syria preparing to launch an explosives-laden drone into northern Israel from Syria last Thursday.

The video, captured by an Israeli field intelligence unit along the border, shows four fighters from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds force carrying the UAV through a field to its planned launch point located in the southern Syrian village of Arneh.

Iran attempted a second time to carry out the same attack on Saturday night, the army said, prompting a retaliatory strike by Israel.

The plan to attack was orchestrated by the IRGC’s Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the IDF chief of staff said.

The Iranian fighters intended to target northern Israel with the attack drones, each of which was packed with “several kilograms of explosives,” IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus said earlier in the day.

The IDF monitored the Iranian plot for “a number of weeks,” Conricus said.

On Saturday around 11pm, Israel Air Force jets struck Iranian targets in the Syrian town of Aqraba, south of Damascus, thwarting the “imminent” UAV attack, the army said. According to war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, five personnel were killed in the strikes, two of whom were operatives for the Iranian proxy terror group Hezbollah and one a member of an Iranian militia. The other two have not been identified.

“The Israeli raids targeting Iranian and Hezbollah posts … in the southeast of Damascus killed at least three people — two from Hezbollah and a third who was Iranian,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“The strike targeted Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militias which were preparing to advance attack plans targeting sites in Israel from within Syria over the last number of days,” the IDF said in a statement.

In his own statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression. I have directed that our forces be prepared for any scenario. We will continue to take determined and responsible action against Iran and its proxies for the security of Israel.”

The Syrian army said that “the majority of the Israeli missiles were destroyed before reaching their targets,” but Conricus maintained that the damage caused by the Israeli strikes was “significant,” Reuters reported.

A senior official in Tehran denied that Iran’s facilities had been targeted, saying Israel didn’t have the “power” to do so.

“This is a lie and not true,” Mohsen Rezaei, who is also secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, told the semi-official ILNA news agency on Sunday, according to Reuters.

“Israel and the United States do not have the power to attack Iran’s various centers, and our [military] advisory centers have not been harmed,” Rezaei added.

Last Thursday, Israel prevented Iran from flying the attack drones into northern Israel from the Syrian village Erneh, the IDF spokesman said.

He would not elaborate on the exact method employed by the military to foil that attack, but said it was “not necessarily kinetic,” suggesting electronic warfare.

The attack drones were similar to those used by the Tehran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, Conricus said.

“The modus operandi is similar to what we have seen in other places in the Middle East — in Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” Conricus said.

“The person who led this attack and commanded it was Qassem Soleimani personally. He funded, coached and trained Shiite operatives, who were supposed to carry it out,” IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said at a meeting of the IDF Northern Command.

Kochavi warned that Iran may carry out retaliatory strikes but that Israel would be ready for them “in the best way possible.”

The IDF has carried out scores of strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria, but rarely confirms specific attacks.

In February 2018, the IDF reportedly downed an armed Iranian drone that had infiltrated Israeli airspace. </s> The Latest: Israeli PM says Iranian sites in Syria 'pounded'

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israeli airstrikes in Syria (all times local):

Israel's prime minister says the country's military "pounded" Iranian targets in Syria in response to a missile launch against Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel won't "allow such acts of aggression to go unanswered." He spoke at a dedicating ceremony for a new Israel airport.

Netanyahu vowed that "whoever tries to harm us, we will harm them. Whoever threatens to destroy us, will bear the full responsibility."

It was Netanyahu's first acknowledgement of Israel's most severe strike in Syria in nearly a year. The Israeli military says the Iranian targets that its jets struck in Syria included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 11 were killed in the strikes.

The chief of Iranian Air Force says his forces are "impatient and ready" to fight against Israel in order to destroy the Jewish state, remarks that came just hours after Israeli jets struck a series of Iranian military targets in Syria.

A news website affiliated with Iran's state television, YJC.ir, quoted Gen. Aziz Nassirzadeh as saying that the Air Force's "young generation are impatient and ready for a fight against the Zionist regime to wipe it off the Earth."

Nassirzadeh spoke during a visit to the Air Force's academy after pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Monday.

Israel said the targets included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp and were in response to a rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel on Sunday.

The Israeli military says the Iranian targets that its jets struck in Syria include munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

The unusual announcement appears to mark an end to Israel's years-long policy on ambiguity regarding activities in neighboring Syria. The military says the strikes come in response to a surface-to-surface rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel.

Israel recently acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. It previously refrained from commenting for fear of triggering a reaction and being drawn into the deadly fighting in neighboring Syria's civil war.

Even so, Monday's announcement went a step further reporting the strike in real time and detailing the targets.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 11 were killed in the strikes. </s> JERUSALEM - The Israeli military shot down an Iranian drone it said infiltrated the country early Saturday before launching a "large-scale attack" on at least a dozen Iranian and Syrian targets inside Syria, in its most significant engagement since the fighting in neighboring Syria began in 2011. Responding anti-aircraft fire led to the downing of an Israeli fighter plane.

Israel said the drone infiltration was a "severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty" and warned of further action against unprecedented Iranian aggression.

The military said its planes faced massive anti-aircraft fire from Syria that forced two pilots to abandon an F-16 jet that crashed in northern Israel. One pilot was seriously wounded and the other lightly. Syrian officials reported large explosions in the center of the country and the Syrian counter fire set off warning sirens throughout northern Israel.

The exchanges marked the height of tensions along the volatile Israel-Syria frontier and Israel said Iran would be held responsible for its outcome.

Syria accuses U.S. of supporting ‘terrorism’ after air strike

"This is a serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory. Iran is dragging the region into an adventure in which it doesn't know how it will end," Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said in a special statement. "Whoever is responsible for this incident is the one who will pay the price."

Gen. Hossein Salami, acting commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, did not acknowledge Israel's claim it shot down the drone. "We do not confirm any such news from Israel," he said. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasem called the Israeli claim "ridiculous."

The Israeli military, however, released aerial footage of the drone being tracked and then shot down by an Israeli Apache attack helicopter.

The joint operations room for the Syrian military and its allies denied the drone violated Israeli airspace, saying it was on a regular mission gathering intelligence on Islamic State militants.

Syria's Defense Ministry said in statements on its website that its air defenses responded successfully to the Israeli operation and hit more than one plane. "The Israeli enemy has once again attacked some of our military bases in the southern area and our air defenses responded and foiled the aggression," it said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman were convening the top brass at military headquarters in Tel Aviv for emergency consultations on the Sabbath to discuss further response.

Israel has mostly stayed out of the prolonged fighting in Syria, wary of being drawn into a war in which nearly all the parties are hostile toward it. It has recently been warning of the increased Iranian presence along its border, but military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Saturday's incident marked the most "blatant and severe violation of Israeli sovereignty" yet.

He said Israel has no interest in further escalation but that it would "extract a heavy price" for such aggression.

Conricus said Iran was "playing with fire" by infiltrating Israeli airspace, and said the unmanned aircraft Israel shot down was "on a military mission sent and operated by Iranian military forces." He said Israel recovered the remains of the dispatched drone, which proved it was Iranian.

In response, Conricus said Israeli jets destroyed the Iranian site in central Syria that launched it. Upon their return, the jets came under heavy Syrian anti-aircraft fire and the pilots of one of the F-16s had to eject and the plane crashed. It's unclear whether the plane was actually struck or if the pilots abandoned their mission for a different reason.

If the plane was in fact shot down by enemy fire, it could mark the first such instance for Israel since 1982 during the first Lebanon war.

Wassim Elias, 39, a government employee, called it retribution for the many Israeli raids on Syrian soil before. "This earned the Syrian army and every Syrian citizen prestige. This is what we have always demanded," he said.

Firas Hamdan, 42, a public servant, said such Syrian responses will ensure no more Israeli attacks in Syria. "Such attacks should be confronted and the response should be tougher to give the Israelis a lesson."

In subsequent attacks, Israel struck four additional Iranian positions and eight Syrian sites in Syria. The military said significant damage was caused. Conricus said the Israeli jets faced between 15 to 20 anti-aircraft missiles fired by SA-5 and SA-17 batteries. All the Israeli jets in those sorties returned home safely.

Israel has taken great care to coordinate all its actions in the area with Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar Assad and maintains a large military presence in the country.

But Russia's foreign ministry expressed concern over Saturday's strike and called for restraint.

"We consider it necessary to unconditionally respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and other countries of the region," it said in a statement. "It is absolutely unacceptable to create threats to the lives and security of Russian servicemen who are in Syria at the invitation of its legitimate government to assist in the fight against terrorists."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, said Israel targeted the edges of a military air base, called T-4, in the Homs desert near Palmyra, where Iranian and Hezbollah forces are based alongside Syrian troops. The Observatory said the raids resulted in casualties, but didn't specify. It also said Israeli raids targeted areas in southwestern Damascus, bordering the southern provinces. This was followed by raids on Syrian government posts along the Damascus-Beirut road, close to the border between Syria and Lebanon.

Syrian state TV said air defenses hit more than one Israeli plane and that a girl was injured when Israeli missiles fell near a school in a neighborhood in Damascus' countryside.

A Syrian lawmaker, Feras Shehabi, said the response marked a "major shift in the balance of power in favor of Syria and the axis of resistance." He said "Israelis must realize they have no longer superiority in the skies or on the ground."

Retired Lt. Col. Reuven Ben-Shalom, a former Air Force pilot, said the fierce Israeli response was meant not only to counter the immediate threat but also to send "very clear messages" to show Iran how deep Israel's knowledge was of its activity in Syria.

"The fact that a drone like this is identified, tracked and intercepted so smoothly by the Israeli air force demonstrates our capabilities, demonstrates our resolve not to allow the breach of Israeli sovereignty," he said. "I think it's good that our enemies learn and understand these capabilities."

Israel has long complained about the involvement of archenemy Iran, and Iranian proxy Hezbollah, in the Syria war. The Shiite allies have sent forces to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, who appears headed toward victory after years of fighting. Israel has said it will not accept a permanent military presence by Iran and its Shiite allies in Syria, especially near the Israeli border.

Israel has been warning of late of the increased Iranian involvement along its border in Syria and Lebanon. It fears Iran could use Syrian territory to stage attacks or create a land corridor from Iran to Lebanon that could allow it to transfer weapons more easily to Hezbollah.

The Israeli Cabinet recently held a meeting on the Golan Heights near the border with Syria to highlight new threats, which are attributed to Iran's growing confidence given Assad's apparent victory in Syria thanks to their help.

Israel has shot down several drones that previously tried to infiltrate its territory from Syria. The targeting of Iranian sites in response, however, marks an escalation in the Israeli retaliation. The military confirmed that the initial target in Syria — the unmanned aircraft's launch components — was successfully destroyed and released footage of the strike. </s> But speaking after at least four Syrian soldiers were been killed in the raids carried out by Tel Aviv, during which Iranian forces operating within the country have been targeted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu hit back, warning he will hit back against "anyone who tries to harm us". Speaking today, the head of Iran's air force said on Monday the country was impatient to fight Israel and destroy it, a state-linked news website said. Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh was quoted as saying by the Young Journalist Club, a website supervised by state television: ”The young people in the air force are fully ready and impatient to confront the Zionist regime and eliminate it from the Earth."

Israel struck in Syria early on Monday as part of its increasingly open assault on Iran's presence there, shaking the night sky over Damascus with an hour of loud explosions in a second consecutive night of military action.



The threat of open confrontation between arch-enemies Israel and Iran has long simmered in Syria, as the Iranian military has established a presence there since early in its civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad against rebels.



Israel, which regards Iran as its biggest threat, has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets and those of allied militia, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, in Syria, aiming to push them far from its frontier.



The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked the Iranian targets early on Monday, including munition stores, a position in the Damascus International Airport, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

Israeli jets then targeted Syrian defence batteries after coming under fire, the Israeli military said, and the Defence Ministry of Russia, Assad's strongest ally, said four Syrian soldiers were killed and six wounded.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 11 people had been killed.



Syrian air defences, supplied by Russia, had destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs, the Russian Defence Ministry said, according to RIA news agency.



Syrian state media, citing a military source, said the country had endured "intense attack through consecutive waves of guided missiles, but had destroyed most "hostile targets".



Israel's target was the Iranian Quds Force, a special unit in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps overseas operations, the Israeli military said.



It followed a previous night of cross-border fire, which Israel said was prompted by a rocket fired at a packed ski resort in the Golan Heights, close to the frontier with Syria.



An Israel military statement said: “Yesterday, Iranian Quds forces operating in Syrian territory launched a surface-to-surface rocket from Syrian territory aimed at the northern Golan Heights.”



Syria said it was Israel that had attacked, and its own air defences that had repelled the assault.

Speaking during a visit to Chad in West Africa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is hoping to win a fifth term in an April 9 election, said: "We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us.”



Israel, which appointed a new military chief last week, also appeared keen to signal zero tolerance for Sunday's rocket launch, which it said had been foiled by its Iron Dome interceptor system.



The Israeli army said the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It added that otherwise things remained "routine" along the frontier with Syria.



Netanyahu last week acknowledged an Israeli attack on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, where Tehran provides Damascus with vital support.



He told his cabinet Israel had carried out "hundreds" of attacks over the past years of Syria's war to curtail Iran and its ally Hezbollah. In a speech today, he said the air strikes had mainly targeted military positions set up by Iran, which he warned would face consequences for threatening to destroy Israel. He addedL "We are operating both against Iran and against the Syrian forces that are abetting the Iranian aggression. "We will strike at anyone who tried to harm us. Whoever threatens to eliminate us, bears full responsibility." Iran has said it has no plans to quit Syria, where it has helped Syria's President Bashar al-Assad fight off an eight-year rebellion against his rule. Most of the country is now back under Damascus' control, and Assad's alliances with both Iran and Russia remain very strong. Last summer, he took back rebel-held territory in southwest Syria, near the Golan Heights, in a campaign that was supported by Iran-backed militias. </s> The attack took place in Aqraba, southeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus. Tehran is considered to be one of Damascus’s closest allies. Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters: “The IDF (Israeli Defence Force), by Israeli aircraft, was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones.

The attack targeted: “A number of terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias. “The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity.” The Quds force are part of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. Mr Conricus claimed on Thursday Israel had prevented an attempt to launch a drone attack but did not provide further details. READ MORE: Iran unveils powerful new missile defence system as talks dismissed

Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, Israel has launched several strikes across the border, which it has said are against Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group is considered a proxy of Tehran and supports the regime of Bashar al-Assad. In June 2016, Israel launched Operation Good Neighbour to provide humanitarian aid to civilian victims of the conflict but in September last year, the IDF announced the operation would be closed due to the return of Mr al-Assad’s government to power in the south of Syria. Ever since the current Iranian regime gained power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, they have not recognised Israel and leadership refers to Israel as ‘the Zionist regime.”

Israel accuses Iran of involvement in terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets. As reported by the Times of Israel, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in 2015 that “erasing Israel of the map” is “nonnegotiable”. He added: “The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back.” The Basij is a religious volunteer force founded in the midst of the 1979 revolution to act as a moral police and suppress dissenting voices. Iran’s last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had enjoyed warm relations with Israel but the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini declared the state to be an “enemy of Islam” and “The Little Satan”. </s> Israeli forces bombed targets belonging to Iran inside Syria early Monday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, as tensions on the northern border continued to skyrocket.

The IDF said at 1:30 a.m. it was “striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” and warned Syrian forces not to intervene.

“The IDF warns the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli territory or forces,” the army said in a statement.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Syria’s state-run SANA news outlet claimed its air defenses had shot down a number of “hostile targets.”

Video posted online appeared to show at least one missile being intercepted.

It claimed the strikes had come from the direction of Lebanese airspace and said explosion were heard near Damascus.

The Quds Force is Iran’s expeditionary unit inside the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Israel and others accuse of trying to gain a military foothold in Syria.

The attack came hours after Syria shot a missile at Israeli territory, in apparent response to a rare daylight attack on targets in and around Damascus widely attributed to Israel.

Israel’s air defenses managed to down the surface to surface missile before it reached Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights, according to the military.

Signaling fears of a fresh attack on Israel, the army announced it would shutter the Mount Hermon ski resort on Monday. On Sunday, the popular site had remained open despite the missile attack nearby.

The cross-border fire come less than a week after IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi took office.

The IDF announcement regarding the attack was nearly unprecedented, after years of maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity regarding its air campaign against Iran gaining a military foothold in Syria.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have seemingly become more open about Israel’s military efforts in Syria, even as the installation of more advanced Russian air defense systems and tensions with Moscow have complicated the campaign.

On Sunday Netanyahu appeared to confirm that Israel was behind the daylight strike while speaking to reporters in Chad.

“We have a permanent policy to hurt the Iranian entrenchment in Syria, and everyone who is trying to hurt us,” Netanyahu said. “This policy doesn’t change, whether I am in Israel or on a historic visit in Chad. It’s permanent.”

Local Syrian media said the targets of strike were in Damascus International Airport and in the town of al-Kiswah, south of the capital, both of which have been hit by Israeli attacks in the past. Last year, the Israeli military said bases near al-Kiswah were used by pro-Iranian militias. An Iranian weapons depot at the airport was targeted in an airstrike a week and a half ago, Israel said.

Israel typically refrains from commenting on individual airstrikes in Syria, but does generally acknowledge that it carries out raids against Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked targets in the country.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. </s> A top Revolutionary Guards commander on Sunday denied Israeli claims that Iranian targets were hit in an IDF airstrike in Syria, asserting that the Jewish state lacked the power to carry out such attacks.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor appeared to contradict Iran’s denial, saying an Iranian combatant and two fighters for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah were among the fatalities in the strike.

“The Israeli raids targeting Iranian and Hezbollah posts… in the southeast of Damascus killed at least three people — two from Hezbollah and a third who was Iranian,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Late Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces made a rare announcement acknowledging it had carried out the attack in Syria against Iranian forces and Shiite militia members, who it said has been been working on a plan to fly explosives-laden “killer drones” into Israel.

In a statement issued just minutes after the Israeli army announced its attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the military’s “major operational effort” in thwarting the attack planned by “the Iranian Quds force and Shiite militias.”

“Iran has no immunity anywhere,” Netanyahu said. “Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression. I have directed that our forces be prepared for any scenario. We will continue to take determined and responsible action against Iran and its proxies for the security of Israel.”

“This is a lie and not true,” Mohsen Rezaei, who is also secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, a powerful state body, told the semi-official ILNA news agency on Sunday, according to the Reuters new agency.

“Israel and the United States do not have the power to attack Iran’s various centers, and our [military] advisory centers have not been harmed,” Rezaei added.

The late-night airstrike, which triggered Syrian anti-aircraft fire, appeared to be one of the most intense attacks by Israeli forces on Iranian targets in Syria.

Netanyahu, who is also defense minister, held a midnight emergency meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv with IDF chief Aviv Kohavi and Mossad head Yossi Cohen, as well as other senior defense officials.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said forces had been put on high alert near the Syrian frontier after the attack.

On Sunday morning, members of Israel’s top-level security cabinet warned that Iran should not feel safe “anywhere.”

“We are taking responsibility for the attack in Syria and are saying that Iran should feel it is not safe anywhere,” Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Channel 13 TV news.

“Iran is working day and night all over the Middle East in order to build an empire that has set for itself the goal of destroying Israel,” Elkin said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the Kan public broadcast radio that Israel had openly taken responsibility for the strike — an unusual move — to demonstrate to Iran that it “has no immunity anywhere.”

He added: “The [Syria] action was intended to cut the head off the snake.”

Syrian state media said it had shot down most of the Israeli missiles. Military analysts often accuse Syria of exaggerating the efficacy of its air defense systems, claiming to have shot down incoming missiles that in fact hit their targets.

As regional tensions simmered in the wake of the Syria airstrike, the Iran-backed Hezbollah said Sunday that an armed Israeli drone exploded next to the group’s media headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut, causing significant damage, and a second crashed. Hezbollah later said the drones had not been shot down.

There have been few direct clashes between Israel and Iran in Syria. In May 2018, Israel said Iranian forces fired some 20 rockets at Israel, with most being shot down or failing to reach Israeli territory. In response, Israel carried out extensive airstrikes on Iranian positions in Syria.

While Israel has acknowledged carrying out thousands of airstrikes inside Syria against weapons transfers to Iran-backed fighters and to keep Iran from gaining a foothold there, it rarely acknowledges individual strikes.

The ambiguity is part of a strategy seen as helping give Tehran and Damascus cover from needing to strike back to save face. Israel has appeared to apply the same strategy in Iraq, where the IDF has been reported to have carried out a number of strikes on Iran-backed militia positions near Baghdad.
The Israel Defense Forces say their Air Force strikes multiple Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Aqraba near the Syrian capital Damascus. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims an Iranian attack on Israel using armed drones to be imminent. Syria says it repels the attack and shoots down most of the attackers' rockets.