Israel engages air defenses to intercept anti-aircraft missile from Syria – IDF

The Israeli military has confirmed it was forced to “activate” air defense systems against an anti-aircraft missile coming from Syria. The action was taken after Damascus engaged and intercepted several incoming “hostile targets.”

Israel said there was no damage nor were there any injuries among IDF personnel, but offered no further details of the engagement. Social media footage showed a supposed Israeli interceptor missile being deployed from the city of Hadera, which lies just some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Syrian border, but it remains unclear if it downed anything. Locals there also reported hearing a large explosion.

Earlier, Syrian state media reported that the country’s air defenses had engaged “enemy targets” in the countryside west of Damascus, in an alleged Israeli attack launched from the direction of Lebanon.

The jets had reportedly entered Lebanese airspace before attacking their targets in Qatana, in the southwestern suburb of Syria’s capital. During the raid, Israeli jets allegedly had to fire heat flares as decoy targets, Al-Manar satellite television station reported.

According to some reports, up to 22 missiles were fired in the Christmas Day raid, targeting weapons depots thought to have been used by Iran in Syria.

Though it does not, as a rule, confirm or deny actions attributed to it, Israel has launched scores of air raids on targets inside Syria during the past half-decade.

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