Amid rising tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow over the war in Ukraine, a Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile battery fired at Israeli Air Force jets for the first time during a reported Israeli airstrike last Friday, May 13, according to foreign reports.
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It was not immediately clear whether the S-300 battery that reportedly fired on the Israeli jets officially belonged to Russian or Syrian forces, but in the past, this had made no difference. No S-300 systems in Syria ever fired on IAF aircraft, although pretty much everything else in Syria's otherwise dated air defense system has. Russia controls Syrian airspace and has an extensive military presence in the war-torn country that shares a border with northern Israel.
Israel coordinates with Russia in Syria but tensions have been ramping up recently between the Kremlin and Jerusalem over the war in Ukraine as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government plays a balancing act between Kyiv and Moscow.
In a policy shift in late April after long refusing to provide defensive equipment to Ukraine, Israel said it would send helmets and flak jackets to the beleaguered nation's emergency services.
Israel's Channel 13 News, meanwhile, reported on Monday that the Russian S-300s batteries fired at the Israeli aircraft but that the missiles did not pose a threat and there was no radar lock on the planes.
It is unclear if the incident was a one-time event or if it signals a new Syrian policy by the Kremlin regarding Israel's freedom to act against threats in Syria.
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Five people were killed and seven injured in the alleged Israeli airstrike in Hama province in west-central Syria on Friday, according to Syrian state media. The Russian ministry of defense revealed Saturday that Israeli F-16s fired 22 missiles toward a Syrian scientific research center in Masyaf and the Baniyas port.
Israel launched "bursts of missiles" from over the Mediterranean at 11:20 p.m., triggering air-defense systems, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
