Missile launched toward Israel from Syria, IDF responds with airstrikes
Alarms sounded in Abu Qrenat near Dimona in southern Israel early Thursday morning, the IDF's Spokesperson's Unit reported.Residents from across the country, including central Israel and Jerusalem, reported hearing "loud explosions" that "shook the houses."
Early reports indicated the explosion being the result of a patriot battery responding to a missile launched toward Israel. The IDF later confirmed the reports. "Due to a surface to air missile entering Israeli territory, air defense systems were activated," a statement by the IDF read, noting that the IDF is still investigating the incident. The patriot was reportedly launched from near the city of Dimona.
It was unclear at first where the missile was launched from. Several indications pointed to the missile being launched from Iraq, while according to other reports, it came from the city of Daraa in southern Syria following an Israeli airstrike.
Brig.Gen. Hidai Zilberman later told reporters that the explosion was due to the firing of an SA-5 surface to air missile that was fired towards Israel from Syria and that it exploded in the southern Negev.
According to the spokesman, Israel responded to the firing of the SA-5 towards IAF jets by striking several anti aircraft batteries in Syria, including the one which fired the missile that exploded in southern Israel.
Incoming rocket sirens were triggered in the northern Negev in the area near Israel’s nuclear reactor in the predawn hours of Thursday morning, followed by massive explosions that could be heard throughout much of the country.
The Israel Defense Forces said the sirens in the northern Negev, not far from the country’s nuclear reactor, were set off not by a directed attack on a target within Israel but by an errant Syrian anti-aircraft missile that had been fired at an Israeli jet during an airstrike on targets in the Syrian Golan Heights.
“A launch was detected of a surface-to-air missiles from Syrian territory toward Israeli territory, which fell in the Negev region,” the IDF said.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
In response to the launch of the surface-to-air missile, Israeli jets conducted a second round of airstrikes in Syria, bombing the battery that fired the projectile, as well as other air defense systems, the IDF said.
According to Syrian state media, four soldiers were injured in the Israeli strike and material damage was caused.
The incident came amid peak tensions between Israel and Iran, weeks after an attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear site earlier this month, which has been widely attributed to the Jewish state. Iran has vowed to retaliate for the alleged Israeli sabotage.
According to Zilberman, the projectile appeared to be a Russian-made SA-5 surface-to-air missile, a particularly large projectile, weighing several thousand kilograms with a 200-kilogram warhead.
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