The Israeli army sounded air defense sirens in northern communities near the border with Syria and Lebanon today amid reports that a Patriot missile interceptor was launched at a drone entering Israeli airspace. The alarm comes less than 24 hours after Israeli fighter jets fired missiles from Lebanese airspace against a military post in the city of Misyaf in western Syria. Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted a military source saying that the strike only caused material damage, but Syrian opposition members claimed members of Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strike targeted a “workshop supervised by Iranians where surface-to-surface missiles are made.”
The escalation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet today with a Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. Netanyahu said he would share the same stance he presented to President Vladimir Putin when they met in Moscow last week, namely that Syria must respect the 1974 Separation of Forces agreement with Israel. “We are continuing to act in Syria to prevent Iranian entrenchment there,” Netanyahu said Sunday. Read More