A Syrian unmanned aerial vehicle infiltrated Israel last night, prompting the IDF to fire a patriot missile which destroyed the drone. The incident occurred after an air strike destroyed Iranian supplied weapons caches near the Damascus International Airport, an attack Syria’s military attributed to Israel – even though the IDF refused to confirm nor deny the allegation. Nevertheless, Israeli Minister of Intelligence and transportation, Yisrael Katz asserted that the strike on the weapons caches, which according to military experts that monitor the situation in Syria were meant for Shi’ite Muslim militias operating in the war-torn country, was in line with Israel’s established policy to interrupt weapons transfers.
That said, Minister Katz refused to comment directly on the incident.Meanwhile, a senior Israeli officer revealed that there is no connection between the infiltration last night of the unmanned aerial vehicle into Israeli territory. The officer said that the debris of the military-drone have yet to been found and it is unclear who manufactured it and to what aim it had infiltrated, but Israel’s assessment is that it was Syrian, and that it accidentally infiltrated Israel during a reconnaissance mission.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman responded to a question during a press conference, in which he was asked whether Israel had informed Russia of the alleged strike in advance, to which he responded that “Moscow and Jerusalem share information through different channels, and that the general staffs of both countries maintain an ongoing dialogue.”
As opposed to a previous strike by Israel in its northern neighbor about a month ago, after which the Israeli ambassador and military attaché in Moscow were summoned for a reprimand and Prime Minister Netanyahu received a harsh phone call from President Putin, due to the fact that there were Russian military installations in the area of the strike; the attack that was attributed to Israel yesterday morning did not endanger any Russian facilities.
