Tuesday 19 March 2024 
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In first, Russian military said to fire S-300 missiles at Israeli jets over Syria

Russian forces opened fire on Israeli jets with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles as they allegedly attacked targets in northwestern Syria last week, Channel 13 news reported Monday, in what could signal a significant shift in Moscow’s attitude to Israel.

According to the unsourced report, the incident occurred on Friday as the Israeli Air Force bombed several targets near the city of Masyaf in northwestern Syria.

 

On Friday night at least five people were killed and seven were hurt in the alleged airstrike, Syria’s state news agency said.

 

Other media in the country said six were killed, all crew members of a Pantsir air defense system who attempted to take down the Israeli missiles.

 

The report said the Syrian military fired off dozens of anti-aircraft missiles, which have been largely ineffective at halting the hundreds of Israeli strikes on Syria in recent years.

 

However, this time the S-300 batteries also opened fire as the jets were departing the area. They ultimately did not present a real threat to the IAF fighters, the report said, noting that Syria’s S-300 batteries are operated by the Russian military and cannot fire without their approval.

 

The report also said that the S-300 radar did not manage to lock onto the Israeli jets.

 

If confirmed, this would mark the first time such an incident has taken place and would be a worrying development for Israel, which has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria in the course of the country’s civil war, targeting what it says are arms shipments bound for Hezbollah group.

 

 

Israel rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations and there was no confirmation of the raid or the S-300 launch from the IDF.

 

The report comes amid a deterioration in ties between Israel and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Israel has tried to walk a fine line between Moscow and Kyiv but has recently become more critical of Russia as evidence emerged of Russian atrocities and growing antisemitic rhetoric from Russian leaders.

 

Russia, a close ally of Syria’s Bashar Assad, has forces based and operating in Syria.

 

Beyond providing Syria with its air defenses, Moscow also maintains state-of-the-art S-400 air defense systems to protect its own assets in Syria, but has never turned them on Israeli planes.




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