Syria: Israel’s aggression will push region toward ‘total escalation’

Syria: Israel’s aggression will push region toward ‘total escalation’

World Israel News Staff

Syria on Tuesday warned that Israel was in danger of pushing the entire region toward “total escalation” following the fourth round of strikes in a week attributed to the Jewish state.

“Syria warns Israel and its sponsors once again of the dangers of these aggressive policies, which push the region towards total escalation and a new phase of insecurity and instability,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by AFP.

Syria further accused Israel of striking Syria in order to “escape its domestic problems through aggressions and crimes outside its borders.”

Appearing to respond to the Syrian foreign ministry’s remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Passover toast at the Defense Ministry that “no [domestic] dispute will prevent us from protecting ourselves from attacks.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, likewise accused Israel of bringing “war and insecurity and creating discord in the region.”

The Syrian Defense Ministry and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that two civilians were killed when a missile hit a “glass factory” in the Al-Kisweh region overnight Monday. Another attack was witnessed on a radar post near the border with Jordan, said the opposition group.

Other Syrian sources said that the factory was accidentally damaged by an errant Syrian air defense missile and not by the Israeli Air Force (AIF).

According to Israel’s Channel 12, in a missile strike a few hours earlier, the IAF also allegedly hit six targets in an area around Damascus, including near the international airport. The news site said that these targets included an Iranian headquarters, a weapons depot and components of the Syrian air defense system.

The Syrian Defense Ministry claimed that “most” Israeli missiles were shot down during the attacks. Some Arab media reported that one of the anti-missile missiles penetrated Israeli territory and was intercepted in the Sea of Galilee area or southern Golan. The IDF denied that any “unusual incident” had occurred in Israeli territory.

The airstrikes came less than a day after Israel shot down an Iranian drone that had entered the country’s airspace from Syria. The IDF said it had tracked the drone from takeoff and it never endangered anyone in Israel.