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Israel announced Tuesday that it had shot down a Syrian fighter plane that had entered the airspace it controls on the Golan Heights, a version denied by Damascus that claimed that the aircraft was conducting anti-jihadist operations in the area. Syrian south.
Israel has been on the alert since the launch on 19 June by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his allies of an offensive to retake rebel areas in the Syrian provinces of Deraa and Quneitra (south ), in the immediate vicinity of the occupied and annexed part of the Golan Heights.
Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the Israeli army, said during a press conference that a "Sukhoi 22 or 24 "had been" hit after penetrating 2 km "into Israeli-controlled airspace in the occupied southern Golan.
In a statement issued shortly before, the army said it had fired" missiles " Patriot in the direction of "the and "intercepted" it, a term she uses to say that the target was shot down.
"The plane crashed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights," said Jonathan Conricus.
In Syria, a military source quoted by the official Sana agency gave another version: according to her, Israel actually fired at a Syrian fighter plane that was carrying out operations against the jihadists in the south of Syria.
– "Israeli Enemy" –
The regime's forces, which have succeeded in retaking the majority of rebel territories in southwestern Syria, now encircle a sector held by the Islamic State (IS) group at near the Golan Heights and the demilitarized buffer zone that crosses it from north to south, created by an agreement in 1974, after the Arab-Israeli war of the previous year.
The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of supporting the And opposition groups
"The enemy isr Aelian confirmed to have adopted armed terrorist groups, and targeted one of our planes that was hitting their positions in the sector of Saida (…) in Syrian airspace, "said the Syrian military source, who said did not specify whether the plane had been hit or shot or the fate of the pilots.
Justifying the Israeli operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as "a clear violation of the separation from 1974 "
" We will not accept any intrusion on our territory, neither air nor land, "he added.
Jonathan Conricus badured that" the incident "was closed but that the Israeli forces "of course remained on high alert."
The military spokesman did not specifically say whether Russia, the ally of Damascus, had been informed before the plane was shot down, but he claimed that "many conversations and communications" had been engaged after Israel found "a high-intensity air activity in the area."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said Tuesday night that air operations had drastically declined after the incident , and that the intense bombing that the Russian and Syrian air raids had conducted early in the day in the south-west of Syria was almost halted.
– "Criminal Operation" –
Neighboring Countries, Israel and Syria have never concluded a peace treaty. Israel seized most of the Golan Heights in 1967, which it annexed in 1981. This annexation has never been recognized by the international community.
While being careful not to be sucked into the Israel struck repeatedly in Syria, including against positions of the Damascus regime and some of its allies, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran.
On Monday, the Israeli army announced that it had fired two rockets launched from Syria
Israel has repeatedly demanded that Iran, its pet peeve, withdraw its military from Syria.
During a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday between Netanyahu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia proposed that Iranian forces be kept at a distance of 100 km from the demarcation line on the Golan, according to an Israeli official.
The Hebrew State had also announced Sunday to have proceeded, at the request of Western countries, the evacuation to Jordan of hundreds of White Helmets and members of their families, stranded in Syrian south-west facing the advance of the regime
These volunteers became famous for their relief operations in rebel bombed areas but the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its allies consider them linked to jihadist groups
The Syrian authorities also blasted Israel's evacuations as a "criminal operation."
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