Israeli jets were on Hizbollah mission

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would not hesitate to take similar action again to target group’s weapons

JERUSALEM // The Israeli warplanes Syria fired missiles at were on a mission to destroy a weapons convoy destined for the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, which was why Israel deployed its missile defence system in a rare military exchange between the two hostile powers.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck several targets in Syria and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria toward the Israeli jets.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out several air raids in recent years on advanced weapons systems in Syria – including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles – as well as Hizbollah positions. It rarely comments on such operations and the military statement detailing the raid and comments from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming the operation were highly unusual.

“Our policy is very consistent,” he said. “When we identify attempts to transfer advanced weapons to Hizbollah, and we have the intelligence and the operational capability, we act to prevent that.

“That is what was and that is what will be.”

The firing of missiles from Syria toward Israeli aircraft is rare, although Israeli military officials reported a shoulder- fired missile attack a few months ago.

Israeli Channel 10 TV reported that Israel deployed its Arrow defence system for the first time against a real threat and hit an incoming missile, intercepting it before it exploded in Israel.

However, Arrow is designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles high in the stratosphere, so it remained unclear why the system would have been used in this incident.

The Israeli military would not comment on the type of system used.

“Our message is clear,” said Israel’s transportation and intelligence minister Yisrael Katz. “We will not be complacent with a Syrian policy that arms Hizbollah.

“The fact the incident developed into a situation where Israel claimed responsibility and the Syrians responded is significant.”

A Syrian military statement said four Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace – flying into Syria through Lebanese territory – and targeted a military position in central Syria. Damascus said Syrian anti-aircraft systems confronted the planes and claimed one of the jets was shot down in Israeli-controlled territory and that another was hit. The Israeli military said none of the jets had been hit. There was no comment from Hizbollah on the military confrontation between Syria and Israel but the leader of the movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, denounced the United Nations as weak after a report accusing Israel of imposing an “apartheid regime” on Palestinians was withdrawn.

It was the first time any UN body had used the term in relation to Israel. Rima Khalaf, executive secretary of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ( ECSWA), resigned on Friday after the UN secretary-general asked her to remove ECSWA’s report from the internet – a request Ms Khalaf said came after “vicious attacks and threats” from “powerful member states”. But in a televised speech yesterday, the Hizbollah leader said that the incident was a reminder of what the UN really was.

“The truth of this organisation, is that it’s weak and it succumbs to the will of the United States and Israel,” he said. “It is incapable of taking a stand.”

The debacle over the report proved the UN could not be relied upon to defend human rights “in our region,” he said.