Netanyahu: Israel Will Use Preemptive Strikes To Prevent 'Offensive Attack Bases In Our Vicinity'

Netanyahu vows preemptive strikes following reports of attack in Syria

The challenges facing Israel do not let up, and the country deals with them not only by responding after the fact, but also by preempting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s words at a memorial ceremony in Rehovot for Ephraim Katzir, Israel’s fourth president, came just hours after the Syrian State News Agency (SANA) said that the country’s air defense thwarted an Israeli missile attack on Tel al-Hara in southern Syria.

“The chain of tests that we are dealing with is unending. We respond vigorously and with force to all attacks against us. However, we do not take action only after the fact. We deny the enemy’s capabilities before the fact.”

Netanyahu said that in a “systematic and consistent manner,” Israel was working to prevent its enemies from establishing “offensive attack bases in our vicinity.”

Tel al-Hara is a strategic hill providing a broad view of the Golan Heights, which reportedly houses an air defense base. The area was recaptured by the Syrian Arab Army last July from rebels, who had held if for most of the country’s eight-year-long civil war.