Netanyahu vows preemptive strikes following reports of attack in Syria

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

By HERB KEINON, TZVI JOFFRE
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial service in memory of the fourth President, Ephraim Katzir (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial service in memory of the fourth President, Ephraim Katzir
(photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
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.
SANA reported that the Israeli missile attack on the site resulted only in material damage, without casualties. The agency said that Israel also conducted cyberattacks on Syrian radar systems, in order to jam the Syrian radar.
According to Ynet, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attack was aimed at positions of the Syrian regime and its allied militias in the Tel al-Hara area near Daraa. There were also reports that anti-aircraft batteries and a radar system belonging to the Syrian army were located in the area that was attacked.
Syrian media reported that on June 2, the IDF reportedly attacked military targets in Syria, including the T-4 airbase near Homs in the north of the country, after two rockets were launched towards Israel from Syria. One of the rockets landed in the Golan Heights, while the other fell in Syrian territory.