i24 News – Russia for the first time fired at Israeli planes in Syria, Channel 13 reported on Monday, citing “foreign publications.”

After hundreds of aerial attacks on targets in Syria by Israeli forces, an air defense battery operated by the Russian military on Friday responded to a wave of Israel Air Force planes attacking targets in the western part of the country.

Russia controls Syrian airspace and has 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 Moscow and Jerusalem over the war in Ukraine as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government plays a balancing act between Kyiv and Moscow.

According to the report, the Russian battery launched several missiles into the air that did not pose a threat to the airplanes. There was also not a locking of the battery radar on the planes, but the article calls it a “precedent-setting event.”

The article said that is unclear if it is a one-time event or if it signals a new Syrian policy by the Kremlin regarding Israel’s freedom to act against threats on the ground from the skies over Syria.

Source: Matzav