Israel won’t confirm or deny it was involved
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said that Israeli jets struck the Mezzeh Military Airport in Damascus, which is next to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s palace. Residents living nearby reported loud explosions, and Al-Arabiya, a TV channel, reported there were emergency sirens in the area.
“The Israeli enemy launched at 3:00 am Wednesday a number of surface to surface missiles from inside the occupied territories to the west of Tall Abu al-Nada (hill) that landed in the surroundings of al-Mezzeh airport west of Damascus.”
Both Syrian and Israeli analysts said that the target appeared to be a weapons shipment destined for Hizbullah guerillas in Lebanon. Hizbullah has been fighting alongside troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad, against rebel groups. But Hizbullah is also an enemy of Israel, and fought a war with Israel in 2006.
The Israeli army had no comment on the incident. But speaking to European Union Ambassadors, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman hinted that Israel was involved.
“We are working primarily to protect the security of our citizens and defend our sovereignty and we are trying to prevent the smuggling of sophisticated weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah,” Lieberman said.
It is the second time in eight days that Israel has reportedly attacked in Syria. Last week, Syria aid that Israeli jets attacked west of Damascus, with reports in Arab media saying the target was a convoy of arms.
Israel has tried to stay out of the five-year-old conflict in Syria, with the exception of treating hundreds of victims of the fighting in Israeli hospitals. Israel has been concerned that the fighting could spill over into Israel, and last week, a number of Islamic State gunmen were killed after exchanging fire with Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights.
Hilal Kashan, the chair of the department of political science and public administration at the American University of Beirut (AUB) said that in the first attack, Israeli jets violated Syrian airspace. This time, Israel fired surface to surface missiles. The fact that Hizbullah accused Israel of the attack shows that Hizbullah was using the site to get weapons.
“Usually it is not the job of Hizbullah to charge Israel about such attacks,” Kashan told The Media Line. “If anything this tells us one thing — that the airbase was clearly receiving Iranian shipments for Hizbullah.”
None of the parties involved – Israel, Syria or Hizbullah, have an interest in escalating the conflict. Yet experts say Israel will act when it feels its security is threatened.
“Iran is using Syria to give weapons to Hizbullah,” Yossi Meckelberg, a fellow at Chatham House in London told The Media Line. “There is a possibility that the intelligence discovered that there was a shipment of either a big quantity or weapons that they see that can affect a future war between Israel and Hizbullah so they attacked.”
In 2007, Israeli jets bombed a facility in Syria it suspected to be a nuclear reactor. Israeli media reports said that Israel consulted with the Bush Administration, and attacked only after the US said it would not. Israel’s fears of Syrian retaliation were not realized.