Israel Reportedly Strikes Syrian Missile Factory

Pictured Above: Israeli Air Force planes. Credit: Major Ofer via Wikimedia Commons.

(JNS.org) The Israeli Air Force (IAF) reportedly attacked a Syrian munitions factory Wednesday night, prompting the Syrian military to retaliate by firing a surface-to-air missile at the Israeli plane that allegedly carried out the strike.

The Lebanon-based and Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen media network cited “unconfirmed reports” that Israel launched an attack on an industrial facility in the Syrian city of Homs. According to the Lebanese report, “Syrian anti-aircraft systems responded” to the attack, but missed the Israeli aircraft.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the facility targeted in the alleged Israeli strike was a military installation, likely used for storing missiles.  

No casualties were reported as a result of the strike. 

“I can’t, of course, relate to reports about the Israel Defense Forces’s attack in Syria, but regardless, Israel’s position is clear: smuggling arms to Hezbollah is a red line in our eyes,” Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio on Thursday, reiterating the Israeli government’s position that it will not tolerate the transfer of advanced weaponry to the Lebanese terror group by Iran and Syria. 

Israel’s latest alleged strike in Syria comes after the Israeli military purportedly struck three Syrian rocket launchers Oct. 21, after several rockets from Syria entered the Israeli Golan Heights. Days before the incident, Israel allegedly destroyed a Syrian anti-aircraft battery after it opened fire on IAF reconnaissance planes.