In the first ever direct Iranian attack on Israel, roughly 20 projectiles were fired at Israel from Syria overnight on Thursday.
Out of the 20 rockets launched at Israel, four were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defence system and the other 16 landed in Syrian territory.
The overnight exchange was the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranian and Israeli militaries, and seemed to be the largest exchange involving Israel in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
There were no reports of Israeli casualties in the attack, an army spokesperson said that “limited” damage was caused to Israeli military bases.
As a response Israel retaliated with air strikes against more than 50 Iranian sites for military training, Iranian Revolution Guard Corps intelligence collection and logistics, rocket firing positions, airfield positions and weapons storage facilities.
It has been reported that up to 23 people were killed in the Israeli retaliatory strikes, of which it is understood 18 were ‘foreign’.
24 hours prior, the Israeli military ordered civilian shelters in the Golan Heights to be opened after observing “irregular” activity by Iranian forces in Syria.
Tehran has continually promised retribution after Israel’s supposed attack on the Iranian-operated T-4 (“Tayfur”) in Syria’s central province of Homs on April 9.
Israel continues to stress that it will not let Iran to embed itself in Syria, where it has for years given military support to Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad. Iran also provides financial and military support to Hezbollah, a Shiite militia in Lebanon.
A State Department official said, “We stand with Israel in the fight against Iran’s malign activities and we strongly support Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself.”
Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party, said, “Israel will not tolerate Iranian attacks on our sovereign territory”.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has pushed intensively for the nuclear deal with Iran to be scrapped, after he revealed that Mossad (Israel’s secret service) had found extensive documents detailing aspects of Tehran’s secret nuclear weapons programme.
