Israel Accused of Fighting in Syria and Sinai Peninsula by Hizbullah and ISIS

Israel’s air force has been busy over the Sinai Peninsula and Syria. Regarding the Sinai, the official ISIS news agency Amaq is reporting that on Thursday, Israeli jets retaliated by attacking near Rafah, killing two children. It added that in a previous drone attack by the Israelis which took place last month killed five ISIS fighters in the Egyptian Sinai. While consistent with its standing policy Israel is not commenting on news of a strike against the Sinai, but there is no denial that its forces struck in Syria and attacked an arms convoy and several Syrian army targets. The Syrian army launched anti-aircraft missiles at the Israeli jets but with the Arrow system activated, none of the aircraft were touched despite Syrian boasts of shooting one down. In Beirut, Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah in a Muslim Women’s Day speech accused Israel of an alliance with the Islamic State by virtue of its attacks on regime targets in Syria. The weapons convoy was presumably bound for Hizbullah in Lebanon and escorted by Syrian troops last week – something the Israelis have repeatedly declared to be unacceptable. Nasrallah accused Israel of playing up to Russian President Putin to prevent the humiliation of a loss in Syria. He again predicted the end to the fighting in Syria with a victory by the incumbent Assad who remains on the job despite the deaths of more than 320,000 of his countrymen during the past six years.