Israel shoots down Syrian fighter jet

A Syrian fighter jet that had “infiltrated into Israeli airspace was shot down on Tuesday morning.
Confirming the incident, an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said a Patriot air-defense system had intercepted a Russian-made Sukhoi warplane over the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights around 9:15 a.m.

Brig. Gen. Ram Shmueli, a former head of intelligence in the Israeli Air Force who is now serving in the reserves, said that the pilots of the jet, which he identified as an Su-24, had ejected safely in Syrian territory.

He told reporters: “We cannot tolerate any penetration of the Israeli airspace, so we had to shut him down even though we understand that his intention was not to attack us. We are not involved in the war in Syria, and we don’t have any intention to be involved. We have to keep our borders safe on one side but we have to make sure we are not part of this war.”

Israel has responded on several occasions in the last three years to what it has described as errant fire from the Syrian civil war that landed in the Golan Heights. In August, Israel shot down a drone from Syria.

Eitan Ben Eliyahu, a retired major general who was commander of the Israeli Air Force from 1996 to 2000, said he did not believe the Syrian fighter jet’s intrusion into Israeli territory was deliberate, because “the Syrian regime would not dare” to provoke Israel.

“It’s hard to analyze and explain and assess the situation, because the situation is absurd,” General Ben Eliyahu said in an interview on Israel Radio. “The fighting there is right on the border fence, and when planes are involved, because of their speed and altitude and ability to spot the targets, it is easy to make mistakes. We, of course, cannot permit this.”

He said he did not consider the episode a threat, “but it reminds us of the mess over there.”
General Shmueli, the former head of air force intelligence, said that the interception of the Syrian jet had nothing to do with the American-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants inside Syria, and that he did not expect the episode to prompt a Syrian response against Israel.

“I believe it’s an isolated event, I don’t see any escalation,” he said. “I believe the Syrians know we don’t have any intention to be part of this war. They know our policy ahead of time because we say it clearly, loudly and publicly.”

New York Times