Israel says it strikes targets in Syria in response to missile attack near Dimona

Israel says it strikes targets in Syria in response to missile attack near Dimona
April 22, 2021, 10:00 am

Light in the sky, is seen in the city in Damascus, Syria in this handout released by SANA on November 20, 2019. (Reuters via SANA)

The Israeli military said on Thursday it attacked a missile launcher and air-defense systems in neighboring Syria in response to a missile launched from Syria striking southern Israel, setting off air raid sirens near the country's top-secret nuclear reactor.

The incident, marking the most serious violence between Israel and Syria in years, pointed to likely Iranian involvement. Iran, which maintains troops and proxies in Syria, has accused Israel of a series of attacks on its nuclear facilities, including sabatoge at its Natanz nuclear facility on April 11, and vowed revenge.

The Israeli army said the missile landed in the Negev region and the air raid sirens were sounded in a village near Dimona, where Israel's nuclear reactor is located. There was no word on whether anything had been struck, but explosions were reported across Israel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But on Saturday, Iran’s hard-line Kayhan newspaper published an opinion piece by Iranian analyst Sadollah Zarei suggesting Israel’s Dimona facility be targeted after the attack on Natanz. Zarei cited the idea of “an eye for an eye” in his remarks.

Action should be taken “against the nuclear facility in Dimona,” he wrote. “This is because no other action is at the same level as the Natanz incident,”

While Kayhan is a small circulation newspaper, its editor-in-chief, Hossein Shariatmadari, was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has been described as an adviser to him in the past.

Zarei has demanded retaliatory strikes on Israel in the past. In November, he suggested Iran strike the Israeli port city of Haifa over Israel’s suspected involvement in the killing of a scientist who founded Iran’s military nuclear program decades earlier. However, Iran did not retaliate then.

Israel and Iran are arch-enemies. Israel accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons and has opposed U.S.-led efforts to revive the international nuclear deal with Iran.

Israel's government says the deal will not prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. It also says it does not address Iran's long-range missile program and its support for hostile proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and has noted that Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear weapons program in Dimona.

Israel neither confirms nor denies claims it has nuclear weapons.