A Syrian surface-to-air missile landed near Israel’s top-secret nuclear reactor on Thursday — triggering warning sirens in the Negev Desert and an Israeli strike on the country, according to reports.
The Israel Defense Forces failed in its attempt to intercept the missile using its air defense systems, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Israeli media later described the missile as an “errant” projectile, not a deliberate attack on the Jewish state.
An IDF spokesman identified the missile as an SA-5 fired against Israeli military aircraft — but which overflew its target and fell in the Dimona area, Reuters reported.
Syria claimed it fired the missile in response to what it claims was an Israeli air force bombing near Damascus, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Israel frequently launches strikes against Syria to prevent Iranian entrenchment there as well as weapons shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the news outlet reported.
Early reports from across Israel cited a loud explosion that the IDF later confirmed was the result of a Patriot defense system battery responding to the missile, according to the report.
Israeli soldiers inspect a piece of debris after a missile launched from Syria landed in the vicinity of the Dimona nuclear site in Israel’s southern Negev desert. AFP via Getty Images“Due to a surface to air missile entering Israeli territory, air defense systems were activated,” an IDF statement said, adding that the military was still investigating the incident.
The IDF said that in response to the launch, it attacked several missile batteries in Syria, including the one that fired the projectile.
Israeli artillery units deployed in the Golan Heights, near Waset. EPASyria’s state news agency said its air defenses intercepted the Israeli attack in the Damascus suburbs.
“Air defenses intercepted the rockets and downed most of them,” the agency said.
An Israeli tank deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the annexed Golan Heights. EPAA Syrian military defector said the Israeli strikes targeted sites near the town of Dumeir, some 25 miles northeast of Damascus, where Iranian-backed militias have a presence, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Dumeir is believed to house army installations as well as bases and weapons depots belonging to Iran-backed militias.
A road sign pointing toward the Dimona nuclear power plant in the southern Israeli Negev desert. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war, said the Israeli strikes hit an air defense base belonging to the Syrian military and destroyed air defense batteries in the area.
With Post wires
