Israel claims fires anti-aircraft missile at drone from Syria, forces retreat

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that it had launched “a Patriot aerial defense system missile” toward a drone, “approaching the Israeli border from Syria”, earlier in the day, implying that the projectile had missed its target since “a hit was not identified.”

The statement did not provide further details. However, Israeli settlers in and out of the city of Safed, in the Upper Galilee region, reported hearing an explosion and witnessing a white smoke trail in the sky. They also began sharing photographs and videos showing the white trail left behind, apparently by the Patriot launch.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government’s central military media quoted an unnamed government’s commander as saying that earlier in the day a drone had been targeted by an Israeli anti-aircraft missile. He added that the aircraft had engaged in ongoing operations by the Syrian army in Quneitra province near the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

The Israeli regime waged a full-scale war against Arab territories in 1967, occupying the West Bank, Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms, and the mountainous Golan Heights.

Back on May 10, Israel conducted what it called its most intensive airstrikes on Syria in decades. According to Russia's Defense Ministry, Israel had used 28 warplanes in its airstrikes on Syria and fired 70 missiles. Both Damascus and Moscow said that the Syrian army managed to shoot down over half of the missiles.

The Tel Aviv regime, at the time, claimed that its assault was a response to a barrage of 20 rockets fired from Syria at Israeli military outposts in Golan.

Over the past few years, Israel has frequently attacked military targets in Syria in what is considered an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering heavy defeats against Syrian government forces.

Israel has been providing weapons to anti-Damascus militants as well as medical treatment to the Takfiri elements wounded in Syria.

On the contrary, Iran has been offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian government fighting all-out foreign-sponsored militancy.