JERUSALEM – Israel shot down a drone that flew in from Syria on Wednesday,the Israeli military said, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew toMoscow to for talks with Damascus’s biggest ally about a Syrian advancenear the volatile frontier.
A Patriot missile launched to intercept the drone, which set offair-defence sirens on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and nearbyJordanian border, the military said in a statement. It was the second suchincident in the area in as many months.
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Iran targets Israel from Syria, Israel responds
Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases inthe Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of theheaviest Israeli barrages against Syria since the conflict there began in2011.ADVERTISEMENT
The drone “infiltrated the Israeli border from Syria”, the Israeli militarystatement said, without immediately elaborating on whether the shoot-downtook place over the Golan. Israel captured much of the strategic plateau inthe 1967 war with Syria and annexed it in a move not recognizedinternationally. An Israeli security source said police were scouring theSea of Galilee, at the Golan foothills in northern Israel, for possibledebris.
Israel has been on high alert as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forcesadvance against rebels near the Golan and Jordan. Israel worries that hecould deploy troops or allow his Iranian and Hezbollah allies to set upemplacements near Israeli lines. Russia is Assad’s big-power backer in the7-year-old civil war. Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday for talkswith President Vladimir Putin, who in the past has turned a blind eye toIsraeli strikes on Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria while makingclear Russia does not want Assad’s rule endangered.ADVERTISEMENT
“We will discuss Syria, we will discuss Iran, we will discuss Israel’ssecurity needs,” Netanyahu told reporters before departing. “I very muchappreciate the direct, unmediated and excellent contact that I have withthe Russian president.” Israel has threatened to open fire at any Syriangovernment forces that try to deploy in a demilitarised Golan buffer zoneset up under a 1974 UN-monitored armistice.
But on Tuesday, Israel also signaled openness to eventual ties with Syriaunder Assad, a tacit acknowledgment that he was re-consolidating power ashe beats back the rebels. Under Assad family rule, Syria held directnegotiations with Israel in the United States in 2000 and indirect talksmediated by Turkey in 2008, discussions predicated on a full or partialreturn of the Golan.
Netanyahu’s government has made clear it would not now cede the plateau andhas been lobbying for US recognition of Israel’s claim of sovereignty there.
On June 24, Israel’s military said it launched a Patriot missile at anincoming drone from Syria, which turned away unscathed. A Syrian commandersaid the drone was engaged in local operations.