Operations in Syria aim at causing Iranian military losses – Israeli military sources
Ramallah – North-Press Agency
Ahmed Ismail
On Tuesdsy, Israeli military sources said that Israel, in its strikes on Syria, is not trying to cause casualties among Iranians or Lebanese Hezbollah militants, but rather focus on achieving losses of Iran's military property.
The Syrian official news agency SANA said on Tuesday that Syrian government air defenses shot down a number of Israeli missiles over the city of Tadmur (Palmyra) in the center of the country.
However, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth focused more on the issue of operating Syrian air defenses following the bombing attributed to Israel and not during it, in an implicit indication that these defenses were not an impediment to the aforementioned raid.
Israeli political analyst Ali Nissan told North-Press that there is no information about the goals of the recent bombing of Palmyra, but he explained that the coronavirus crisis will not prevent Israel from continuing its security operations against what he called the Iranian threat and Hezbollah, which is affiliated with Tehran.
Nissan adds that the coronavirus epidemic reduced the level of Iranian threats against Israel, but it did not stop them, rather these activities continue while Israel is targeting any storage, movement and transport of missiles or reconnaissance aircraft that the Revolutionary Guards are producing.
However, Israeli military sources confirmed to North-Press that they are not trying to cause casualties among Iranians or Lebanese Hezbollah militants, but rather are focusing on achieving losses of Iran's military and security property in order to ensure that no military tension in the region will be caused in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Military analyst Ron Ben Yishai wrote, in an article for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards continue their efforts to establish a front against Israel in Syria, that Iraqi Shiite militias continue to fire rockets at U.S soldiers in Iraq, and that Hezbollah continues its activities in the Syrian Golan within the so-called Golan issue, in the framework of which it establishes terrorist infrastructure against Israel in villages adjacent to the borders.
Apparently, this Hezbollah activity caused tension in the Israeli-Lebanese arena last week. Two incidents in two different places in Lebanon, far from each other, raised the level of tension. On the surface, there is no connection between them, but it is very likely that the first incident that occurred in the middle of last week was part of the secret battle, the battle between wars, by which Israel thwarted Hezbollah's initiatives in Syria, according to observers.
The first incident was that a Lebanese car was bombed in Jdeidet al-Yabous, which is located on the main border crossing point between Syria and Lebanon on the Beirut-Damascus highway. Media outlets reported that the passengers in the car included a senior leader of Hezbollah and three of his men, but the bombing took place after they evacuated the car.
As for the second incident, which took place two days ago and resulted in damage to the security fence on the border between Lebanon and Israel, it was apparently a response from Hezbollah, according to the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in its issue on Monday.