TASS, November 20: The Israeli Air Force has attacked dozens of positions occupied by the Syrian army and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria in response to a missile barrage on Israeli territory that was carried out yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) press service said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military announced that the Israeli air defense systems intercepted four rockets fired from Syria at the Golan Heights. "We just carried out wide-scale strikes of Iranian Quds Force & Syrian Armed Forces targets in Syria in response to the rockets fired at Israel by an Iranian force in Syria last night [on November 19 — TASS]," the press service said via Twitter. "During our strike of Iranian & Syrian terror targets, a Syrian air defense missile was fired despite clear warnings to refrain from such fire. As a result, a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries were destroyed," the IDF added.
Moreover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israeli authorities carried out the strike on Syria to demonstrate that the country will respond to any hostile acts against it. "I have made it clear that whoever hurts us — we will hurt him. This is what we did overnight vis-a-vis military targets of the Iranian Al Quds force and Syrian military targets in Syria after a barrage of rockets was launched at Israel," the Israeli prime minister said via Twitter adding, "We will continue to vigorously maintain the security of Israel."
Earlier, the SANA news agency reported that Syrian air defense systems destroyed a few missiles on the outskirts of Damascus, citing a source in the Syrian Armed Forces. According to the agency, Israeli fighter jets fired several rockets from the Golan Heights territory and the Lebanese town of Marjaayoun aiming at Damascus.
The Golan Heights, an integral part of Syria starting from 1944, were seized by Israel in the six-day war in 1967. Fourteen years later, the Israeli parliament unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The UN Security Council on December 17, 1981 declared these actions null and void.
