Anti-aircraft missiles launched from Syria into Israeli-controlled territory

Anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria into Israeli-controlled territory early on Friday following a series of Israeli airstrikes in Syria, the Israeli military said.

The military said its warplanes struck several targets in Syria and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria toward the Israeli jets.

Israeli aerial defense systems intercepted one of the missiles, the army said. It would not say whether any other missiles struck Israeli-held territory, but it said the safety of Israeli civilians and the safety of the Israeli aircraft “were not compromised.”

The army said the incident was the cause of sirens that wailed in Jewish settlement communities in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. The military would not immediately comment on media reports that explosions were heard in the area.

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The Jordan Valley part of the West Bank borders Jordan.  Israel captured it along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians demand the areas for a future state.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out a number of airstrikes on advanced weapons systems in Syria including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, as well as Hezbollah positions but it rarely confirms them.  The firing of missiles from Syria toward Israeli aircraft is rare.

Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering only sporadic incidents of spillover fire over the frontier that Israel has generally dismissed as tactical errors of the Assad regime. Israel has responded to these cases lightly, with limited reprisals on Syrian positions in response to the errant fire.