Netanyahu on Reports of Syria Strike: ‘We’re Defending Ourselves At All Times’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indirectly commented on reports that Israel launched a strike against Syria on August 1, saying that Israel is “defending ourselves at all times,” the Times of Israel reports.

The Syrian Arab News Agency, a Syrian state-run outlet, and the Saudi Arabian-based Al-Arabiya network reported that Israel fired at a missile at the Quneitra region in the Golan Heights on August 1. The reports stated that there were no deaths, but the missile caused material damage; the reports didn’t indicate the extent of the damage.

Speaking at an August 1 memorial ceremony for Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Netanyahu said, “On the northern front, we’re acting against Iran and Hezbollah, and you’re hearing about that now as well.”

The Times of Israel reports that Israel frequently launches strikes in Syria targeting Iran’s weapon shipments to Hezbollah, its terror proxy, in Lebanon.

Earlier on August 1, a Palestinian gunman wearing a Hamas uniform shot and wounded three Israeli soldiers at the Israel-Gaza border, all of whom are expected to survive. The Jerusalem Post ’s Anna Ahronheim suggested that Israel’s reported Syria strike and the Palestinian gunman’s attack on the Gaza border could lead to a war on three fronts.

“According to a recent report in Haaretz, Iran and Hamas have agreed to open a second front in the south from the Gaza Strip should a war break out in Israel’s north,” Ahronheim wrote. “Israeli officials have warned that any war that breaks out in the north will not be confined to one border-Lebanon, or Syria-but both. That would mean a war fought on three fronts.”

She added that while Israel was able to fight a two-front war in 2006, Hamas and Hezbollah’s “military capabilities” have since “increased tremendously with massive rocket and missile arsenals aimed at the Jewish State’s homefront.”