Reactions in Israel to the Attack on a Syrian Air Force Base

While Syria and Russia attributed the early morning airstrike on Monday, April 8, to the T-4 airbase in Homs province to Israel, the Israeli Defense Minister stated that the country's military operations in Syria have "resumed." At least three senior Israeli military officials implicitly confirmed the attacks, considering them in line with Israel's interests. According to Israeli media, while Avigdor Lieberman, the Defense Minister, confirmed the resumption of operations in Syria, he refrained from providing further explanations. General Yoav Galant, Israel's Housing Minister, stated that Israel has shown it "never hesitates" in defending its interests in Syria. Amos Yadlin, former head of the Israeli military intelligence, wrote on social media that the attack on Syria sends "two messages": that Iran's military presence in Syria is intolerable, and it conveys to Russia that Israel will pursue its objectives in Syria regardless of Russia's or any other country's positions. According to the Jerusalem Post, General Eitan Ben Eliyahu, former commander of the Israeli Air Force, suggested that the timing of the attack raises the possibility that Israel was behind it. He noted that the attack occurred just hours after the Assad regime's chemical attacks on civilians in Eastern Ghouta, and the U.S. confirmed it was not responsible for the attack and could not have reacted quickly for technical reasons. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization that has monitored the bloody civil war in Syria from Britain since its beginning, reported on Monday that the attack on the T-4 base resulted in fourteen deaths, including several Iranians. Some Iranian media, including the Fars news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported the deaths of four Iranian military personnel in the bombing of the T-4 base, referring to them as "defenders of the shrine": Saeed Ammar Mousavi from Qom, Mehdi Lotfi Niasar from Qom, Akbar Zavar Jannati from Tabriz, and Colonel Pasdar Mehdi Dehghani Yazdeli, who was apparently a member of the drone unit of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force. The media coverage of the names of the four Iranians in the recent attack attributed to Israel comes at a time when Iran has remained silent regarding the casualties from Israeli attacks on "Iranian targets" in Syria two months ago. On February 10, Israel confirmed that it had bombed "several Syrian and Iranian targets" in Syria in response to an "Iranian drone incursion from Syrian airspace into Israel." One of the targets attacked that day was the T-4 base in Homs, which Israel claimed was the launch point for the "Iranian drone." Iran had previously stated that Israel has a history of "lying". Prior to the events on Monday in Syria, the death of Colonel Revolutionary Guard Mohammad Ali Allahdadi in Israel's attack in January 2015 on two vehicles of senior Hezbollah forces at the Syrian-Israeli border had been confirmed; Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, was also killed in that attack. Meanwhile, according to Iranian media, Farzad Ismaili, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, on Monday gave the first official Iranian response to media reports about the secret flights of Israeli stealth fighters in Iranian airspace in recent weeks, stating, "These enemy fabrications are not worth responding to, but if a country commits stupidity and approaches, the first line of defense, which is air defense, will definitely respond decisively." Since coming to power, the Islamic Republic of Iran has become Israel's main enemy; Israel has considered the Iranian regime a "vital threat" and has expressed serious concerns about Iran's nuclear programs and regional policies, emphasizing that it will "not tolerate Iran's military presence in Syria." The American NBC television network reported, citing Washington officials, that Israel had informed the U.S. of its intention before the attack on the T-4 airport. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, stated in Moscow that the attack on Syria is "a grave development" but did not specify what actions his country would take against Israel. Since September 2015, when Russia deployed its military personnel to bases in Syria to assist Bashar al-Assad's regime, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has frequently visited Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin to coordinate Israel's actions in Syria. Israel has always claimed that Russia understands its security needs regarding Syria, but media reports alleged that Mr. Putin, during a phone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister following the February 21 attacks, asked him to cease the attacks. Meanwhile, Bashar Jaafari, Syria's representative to the United Nations, presented a letter from his Foreign Ministry to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General and the rotating president of the Security Council, accusing Israel of "terrorism" against Syria and stating that Syria will defend its interests and sovereignty. On February 21, Syria managed to shoot down an Israeli fighter jet, but its pilots landed safely in Israel using parachutes. The U.S., France, and Israel are among the countries that emphasize that the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical attack on Sunday in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, killing over seventy and injuring dozens more. Donald Trump, who referred to Bashar al-Assad as an "animal" in the Sunday chemical attacks, emphasized on Monday that Washington will soon make "important" decisions regarding Syria; General James Mattis, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, did not rule out the possibility of a U.S. attack on Syria. Syria denies the accusation of conducting airstrikes using barrel bombs containing chemical materials on civilians in Douma; Russia and Iran, Syria's two military allies, have also cleared the Assad regime of the accusations.