Israel Continues to Attack Syria, Warns Syria Against Resisting Planes

Israeli DM Threatens to Destroy Syria's Air Defense System

Tensions continue to rise along the Golan Heights frontier, as Israeli warplanes continued to carried out airstrikes against Syrian soil over the weekend, killing a commander in a pro-Syrian militia, and issuing statements warning Syria not to resist the strikes in the future.

Israel responded with shock after Friday’s attacks against Syria saw the Syrian government fire anti-aircraft missiles against the attacking warplanes. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned that if Syria attempts to fire on any attacking airplanes in the future Israel will destroy their air defense systems “without the slightest hesitation.”

Throughout the six years of Syria’s war, Israel has launched regular attacks against Syrian military targets, and this is the first time Syria has tried to chase Israeli warplanes out of their airspace. They succeeded, though Israel touted their use of an anti-missile system to shoot down one of the anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli officials claim the Friday attack targeted a weapons transfer to Hezbollah, but offered no details on what they were doing with today’s attack, beyond continuing to escalate the situation. Russia summoned Israel’s Ambassador on Friday to seek an explanation, which is similarly unprecedented during the war, as Israel has previously been said to keep Russia appraised of its operations along the border, aiming to prevent the deployment of Russia’s air defense against them.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.