{"id":253818,"date":"2022-05-21T07:04:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-21T07:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=253818"},"modified":"2022-05-22T07:53:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T07:53:50","slug":"russia-sends-a-message-with-first-missile-attack-on-israeli-jets-in-syrian-war-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=253818","title":{"rendered":"Russia \u2018sends a message\u2019 with first missile attack on Israeli jets in Syrian war, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria Craw \u2013 inews.co.uk May 20, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"

S-300 on parade in Moscow. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A Russian counter-attack on Israeli forces in Syria has raised fears of a potential escalation to the conflict, with experts fearing a similar provocation \u201cwithin days\u201d.<\/p>\n

This week, Russia launched missiles on Israeli jets that had flown over Syria and struck targets north of Damascus. Several casualties were reported and the Syrian army returned fire from anti-aircraft systems.<\/p>\n

Israel has launched hundreds of similar missions since the\u00a0beginning of Syria\u2019s civil war in 2011<\/a>, often targeting adversaries Iran and Hezbollah which have established a presence in the country and facing down Syrian air defences.<\/p>\n

However on this occasion, the retreating Israeli pilots were targeted by missiles from a Russian S-300 anti-aircraft system under the operational control of Russian officers, Israel\u2019s Channel 13 reported. None of the missiles hit their targets.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military maintains a policy of ambiguity over its operations in Syria, and would not comment on the report. But it was corroborated by defence correspondents at several leading Israeli outlets with close ties to the military establishment. Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence did not comment on the reports.<\/p>\n

The incident marks the first known occasion that an Israeli strike has met with a response from Russian anti-aircraft systems \u2013 raising fears Russia could assert a more aggressive stance in Syria \u2013\u00a0even as it remains militarily bogged down in Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite obvious that the Russians don\u2019t like the fact that we are operating in Syria,\u201d says Channel 13 Defence Correspondent Alon Ben-David, who broke the story. \u201cMy interpretation is that the Russians are saying \u2018you are walking on thin ice. Be careful, we are running out of patience.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ben-David says the event has led to concern within Israel\u2019s military establishment about any potential Russian policy shift over Syria, amid questions over whether the event represents a one-off warning shot or a more serious challenge.<\/p>\n

The next IAF mission in Syria will reveal more. \u201cI believe the test will occur within days,\u201d Mr Ben-David said.<\/p>\n

Deconfliction under pressure<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A deconfliction agreement has been in place since Russia entered the war in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad\u2019s side in 2015. The IAF notifies Russian counterparts before every strike.<\/p>\n

This arrangement was strengthened after Syrian air defences shot down a Russian plane in 2018 with 15 casualties. Moscow held Israel responsible as Syrian forces were firing in response to an Israeli raid.<\/p>\n

The incident also led Russia to introduce the\u00a0S-300 systems<\/a>, despite protests from Israel, which only Russian officers are authorised to fire.<\/p>\n

Israel is acutely aware of the risks of escalation in Syria and is making diplomatic overtures to Russian counterparts in an effort to reduce tensions following the recent incident.<\/p>\n

If Israeli jets come under fire again from Russian anti-aircraft systems \u201cthe Israeli military will do everything to avoid casualties,\u201d says Mr Ben-David.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute has suggested Russia\u2019s missile salvo in Syria was intended to ensure that Israel maintains neutrality.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is sending a strong signal to Israel that Jerusalem must be measured in its support for Ukraine or face consequences in Syria,\u201d says Mr Heras. \u201cRussia can impose costs on Israel\u2019s freedom of action against Iran in Syria\u2026Russia is also sending a broader message to the international community that it is not relinquishing its strategic position in Syria.<\/p>\n

Israel has tried to maintain its historically close ties to Russia, strengthened by the large number of Russian-speaking Jews in Israel, despite the attempts by its Western allies to isolate Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to broker talks between Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the early days of the war, and Israeli officials avoided outright condemnation of Russia.<\/p>\n

However that policy has been tested since. Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drew\u00a0sharp rebukes<\/a>\u00a0from Israeli leaders after claiming Adolf Hitler has \u201cJewish blood\u201d while depicting Zelensky \u2013 who is Jewish \u2013 as the leader of a Nazi regime, in line with Russia\u2019s stated goal to \u201cdenazify\u201d Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Israel has refused requests to supply offensive military aid to Ukraine, and denied reports that it allowed Estonia to supply Ukraine with an Israeli-made anti-ship missile. But since the clash in Syria, the army has\u00a0released pictures<\/a>\u00a0of defensive aid bound for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Both sides have incentives to avoid escalation, notes Marina Miron of the Centre for Military Ethics at King\u2019s College London. \u201cBeing so isolated right now, it would not be a favourable time for Russia to try to eliminate Israel (from Syria)\u201d, she said. Ms Miron suggests Israel\u2019s diplomatic balance is easier than that of Turkey, which has not joined the Western coalition against Russia but supplied Ukraine with deadly drones.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missile sytems under Russian command target Israeli jets in Syrian airspace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,91,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies","category-russia","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253822,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253818\/revisions\/253822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}