Report: Israeli Air Force hit targets near Damascus overnight

Alleged strike, second within days, comes amid joint Russian-Syrian air drills over Syria

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Flares of Syrian air defense rockets are seen in the sky of Damascus on April 4, 2023. (STRINGER / AFP)
Flares of Syrian air defense rockets are seen in the sky of Damascus on April 4, 2023. (STRINGER / AFP)

The Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes against targets near the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday night, the Ynet news site reported.

The report, which did not cite any sources, said Syria did not use air defenses against the strike as it normally does.

Syrian media has so far made no mention of the incident, which would mark the second alleged IAF strike in Syria this week.

Ynet assessed that the strike on Wednesday night targeted warehouses storing “advanced Iranian weapons.”

The strike came as Syria and Russia were holding joint air drills.

The exercises, which began Wednesday and were scheduled to last six days, were to “focus on joint air, air defense and electronic warfare operations to counter airstrikes,” the Russian military said.

Russia maintains a significant military presence in Syria, and largely controls its airspace.

Before dawn on Sunday, the Israeli military said fighter jets struck a Syrian air defense battery in response to an anti-aircraft missile launched from the system earlier in the night that exploded in Israeli airspace.

The nose of what appears to be an S-200 anti-aircraft missile, launched from Syria, after it exploded over Israel and landed in the southern city of Rahat, early July 1, 2023. (Courtesy: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The launch from Syria earlier occurred as the IAF allegedly carried out airstrikes near the city of Homs. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said the IAF targeted a number of sites, causing unspecified “material losses.” SANA said Syrian air defenses responded to the “Israeli aggression.”

The IDF said that the anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria “exploded mid-air in Israeli airspace.”

Shrapnel from the Syrian missile landed in the southern city of Rahat, causing slight damage to a building, but no injuries.

The city is located some 230 kilometers (142 miles) from Israel’s border with Syria, and 415 kilometers (257 miles) from Homs.

No sirens sounded in Israel after the Syrian missile entered Israeli airspace.

Though it is uncommon, Syrian surface-to-air missiles fired at Israeli fighter jets have in the past entered Israeli airspace.

The tail of what appears to be an S-200 anti-aircraft missile, launched from Syria, after it exploded over Israel and landed in the southern city of Rahat, early July 1, 2023. (Courtesy: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

In February 2022, sirens sounded in northern Israel and some West Bank settlements after a Syrian air defense missile exploded over the area, raining down shrapnel. In two separate incidents in 2021, shrapnel from S-200 missiles landed in Tel Aviv and in the southern community of Ashalim.

In a similar case in 2019, a Syrian S-200 missile that was fired at an Israeli jet crashed in northern Cyprus, causing a large explosion and sparking a fire.

In 2018, an IAF F-16 fighter jet crashed in northern Israel after being hit by shrapnel from a Syrian anti-aircraft missile. Both pilots survived.

Israel has regularly accused the Syrian military of wildly firing large numbers of anti-aircraft missiles in response to its strikes.

While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.

The Israeli military says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.

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