Israel, Iran engage in most serious confrontation in Syria

Zeina Karam/ ARON HELLER
BEIRUT, LEBANON.- Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate. “If we get rain, they’ll get a flood,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned.

The scope of the attacks — which Israel called its largest in Syria since the 1973 Mideast war — raised the specter of a full-fledged war between Iran and Israel in Syria, a conflict that could potentially drag the militant Hezbollah and Lebanon into the mix with devastating effects, although both sides appeared to signal they wanted the confrontation to remain contained, at least for now.

Israel, however, has been emboldened by President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week, and the latest escalation seemed to signal a potentially coordinated surge in military activity targeting Iran. The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Iran’s military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory. Iranian media described the Israeli attack as “unprecedented,” but there was no official Iranian comment on Israel’s claims. Iran has vowed to retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes targeting its forces in Syria. But it seemed to carefully calibrate its response by targeting the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized, instead of striking Israel proper.