It’s no secret that the Israelis have been launching military strikes in Syria for quite awhile. It looks like the Syrians finally got sick of this and ended up shooting down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet with a surface to air missile. Israel retaliated with additional attacks in Syria the likes of which haven’t been seen since the early 1980s.
BBC:
Israel says it has inflicted huge damage on Syrian air defences after one of its fighter jets was brought down during a raid over Syria.
The response was the “most significant attack” of its kind against Syria since the 1982 Lebanon war, said senior Israeli air force general Tomer Bar.
The F-16 jet went down during a mission that followed an Iranian drone launch into Israeli territory, Israel says.
The two pilots parachuted to safety before the crash in northern Israel.
Israel says it responded with a second wave of strikes on both Syrian and Iranian military targets operating inside Syria.
Israeli air strikes in Syria are not unusual, BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman says, but the loss of an Israeli fighter jet marks a serious escalation.
BREAKING: This video shows #Israel|i F-16I pilots ejected after their airplane was successfully shot-down by a #Syria|n Air Defense Force's S-200V SAM. They are evacuated from the crash zone now. pic.twitter.com/pYMdoLVeY1
— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) February 10, 2018
While things might calm down, this could be the start of a major war breaking out.
Things got so serious that Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv had to be shut down for a period of time.
#Israel Ben Gurion airport shut down and is being evacuated in anticipation of a retaliatory strike by #Syria
— Partisangirl 🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) February 10, 2018
Ben Gurion Airport briefly halts flights due to northern conflagration https://t.co/fxnEHVq9H2 pic.twitter.com/mRQkncMveP
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) February 10, 2018
This is an interesting situation considering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the midst of a domestic political crisis. There’s the possibility that Israeli police might officially charge him with corruption. Certainly a war would serve as a great distraction from his domestic political troubles.
Whatever the case, this is a major escalation and we’ll have to keep a close eye on what goes on here. The Jews have their backs up against the wall.