Supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad handed out celebratory coffee and candy to passersby in Damascus on Saturday to mark what the state-run media called a "defeat for the enemy" following the downing of an Israeli F-16 jet near the Syrian border.
"Our aerial defense systems managed to foil an attack by the Zionist enemy," the Syrian media report stated, hours after an anti-aircraft missile shot down the Israeli jet as it was returning from bombing a number of Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria in response to the launch of an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace before dawn.
The incident marked the most intensive confrontation between Israel and Iranian-backed forces in Syria since Iran established a foothold there while fighting in support of Assad in a nearly seven-year-old civil war.
State-run television channels in Syria and Hezbollah's Al-Manar television network in Lebanon aired footage of civilians singing and dancing in the streets.
These media outlets also aired clips of the IAF pilots ejecting from the Israeli jet and the debris from the warplane scattering, set to songs glorifying Assad's Syrian military forces.
On the Lebanese side of the Fatima Gate, near the Lebanese border village of Kfar Kila, Hezbollah operatives were seen waving Hezbollah flags.
Lebanon's Hezbollah declared Saturday that the downing of the Israeli jet marked the "start of a new strategic phase" which would limit Israeli exploitation of Syrian airspace.
"Today's developments mean the old equations have categorically ended," the armed Lebanese faction said in a statement.
A Syrian official was quoted threatening Israel, saying "The Israeli attacks on Syrian land have ended. From now on, the response to every hostile action by Israel will be severe."
"Israel has opened the gates of hell on itself," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps second-in-command General Hossein Salami concluded. "The claims of infringement of Israeli sovereignty are baseless and are meant to hide the crimes of the Zionist entity."
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that countries are mistaken if they think bombing their neighbors can lead to desirable results.
Speaking at a news conference broadcast on state television, Rouhani said Iran was "prepared for the security of the region" and called on the cooperation of "all other countries."
Additionally, Rouhani said that "military solution, foreign intervention, funneling destructive arms in this region is not the solution to the problems in this region."
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed Israeli claims that an Iranian drone, launched from Syria, had violated Israeli air space, prompting the clashes. "The reports on the Iranian drone's downing over Israeli skies, as well as its involvement in attacking the Israeli warplane, are ridiculous."
Qassemi insisted that the Islamic Republic's aim in Syria is to "provide military counsel to Syria, as the government requested. It is legitimate for a state to have the right to defend its land and territory from any external aggression."
The Syrian allied war room – shared between Russia, Iran and Hezbollah –issued a statement that said the drone was being used to gather intelligence by terrorist organizations and that the "enemy claims that it penetrated Israeli airspace is false."
In Arabic media, it was reported that the Iranian drone left from the city of Tadmor, which was under Islamic State control until it was reconquered by Syrian regime forces.
According to the news reports, the Iranian forces that launched the drone were injured in the Israeli strike on the drone control system.
In Jordan and in Lebanon, news reports said that debris from the downed aircraft landed in their territory.
Meanwhile, Hamas also joined in the celebration, and said in a statement that it "supports the right of the Syrian people and its leadership to self-defense."
"This is a natural and legitimate response to the hostilities and crimes of Israel against Syria," Hamas said.
