The bombing carried out yesterday by the Israeli air force on a chemical plant in western Syria is a clear signal sent by Israel to Russia and the United States. This was claimed by the Israeli daily “Haaretz”, which underlines how the intensity of the fighting in Syria had significantly decreased following the agreement for the ceasefire reached last July. With this attack, Israel demonstrates that it does not have to submit to international agreements and that it wants to pursue sensitive objectives for its national security despite pressure from Russia and the United States. In fact, Moscow and Washington had not taken into account the Israeli protests relating to the ceasefire agreement, allowing Iran and the allied militias to remain in the Syrian Golan area.
Yesterday, Sept. 7, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Jewish state is not trying to intervene in the Syrian conflict, but the air force will continue to target the military targets of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shia movement. These statements came following the raid against a chemical weapons depot that took place yesterday night, September 7, in Syria and of which Damascus accused Jerusalem. "We are not looking for adventures, and we do not want to be drawn into conflict," Lieberman told radio station "Radius 100 Fm". “We are ready and determined to defend ourselves and ensure the safety of Israeli citizens. We will do whatever it takes to prevent a Shia corridor from Iran to Damascus.
Lieberman's statements come after yesterday night, September 7, Israeli fighters hit a factory where weapons are allegedly being built in Syria. Damascus warned of the “dangerous repercussions of such a hostile act for the security and stability of the region. Representatives of the Syrian opposition report that four Israeli fighters bombed the site during the night. The Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported that a weapons depot near the center that was hit was used to launch ground-to-ground rockets by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters. Syrian opposition forces said the target of the raids was an arms factory producing weapons for the Syrian government and Hezbollah.
Israeli fighters hit a chemical weapons depot in Syria's Hama province on the night of September 7, Israeli media reported citing sources in Damascus and Beirut. The Jerusalem Armed Forces did not comment on the news. The Syrian army confirmed that Israeli fighters bombed a military base near Masyaf, in the western part of the province of Hama, killing two soldiers and causing damage to the facility. The center for research and scientific studies near Masyaf, north of Hama, considered by Western officials to be an institute linked to the production of chemical weapons would have been hit. According to the Damascus army, the raid would be a "desperate attempt to raise the morale of the Islamic State after the overwhelming victories of the Syrian army". Unconfirmed Lebanese sources report that the raids have hit convoys, presumably containing weapons, destined for the Shiite Hezbollah movement. On August 17, the former chief of staff of the Israeli air force, General Amir Eshel, said that Israel has struck at least a hundred times in the last five years convoys of weapons destined for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. According to reports from the newspaper "Times of Israel", Eshel's statements reveal for the first time the number of air strikes conducted, on which in the past there has been neither a denial nor an admission. The Jewish state remained out of the six-year conflict that has raged in neighboring Syria, but has repeatedly said it would prevent Hezbollah's advanced arms acquisition. Only in April 2016 did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admit for the first time that the air force had attacked dozens of weapons convoys in Syria destined for Hezbollah. After the Second Lebanon War of 2006, fought for 33 days by Israel and Hezbollah, the Shiite movement has reconstituted its missile arsenal. According to Israeli sources, Hezbollah has about 100000 short-range rockets. In addition, the Shia movement has changed its organization, abandoning the guerrilla fighting style. Now Hezbollah is organized into battalions and brigades, and some 40000 of its fighters have improved their operational capabilities during operations in Syria alongside President Bashar al Assad's government troops. The Lebanese premier Saad Hariri also spoke on the issue of increasing Hezbollah's missile arsenal last September XNUMXst. Israel knows that there is no missile factory in Lebanon, Hariri said in an interview with the French newspaper "Le Monde", referring to the statements made
last August 28 by the Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. "Iran wants to build missile production sites in Syria and Lebanon and use these weapons against Israel: the UN should not accept it," Netanyahu said during a meeting with the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres. The Israelis "say that Hezbollah controls Lebanon, but that's not true" - Hariri said. Hezbollah exists, it is in government, it has support in the country, but this does not mean that all of Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah ”.
On August 28, the head of the Israeli government accused Iran of wanting to transform Syria into "a military support base in its stated goal of eradicating Israel and for this purpose it is building precision missile production sites in Syria and in Lebanon. Netanyahu added that “this is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN shouldn't accept. In the course of his speech, Netanyahu told Guterres that the United Nations mission Unifil (United Nations interim force in Lebanon) has "failed miserably" in its mandate to prevent the expansion of the military arsenal of the Shiite movement of Hezbollah. "Unifil has never reported even one of the tens of thousands of cases of arms trafficking in Lebanon destined for Hezbollah, contrary to the provisions of resolution 1701. For his part, Guterres stated that" he will do everything to ensure that Unifil complies with own mandate ". The UN secretary general understands the fears related to the security of Israel and that "the idea, the intention or the will to destroy the state of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my point of view". Guterres' visit to the Middle East took place on the eve of the renewal of the mandate of the Unifil mission.