Israel has resumed hitting targets in Syria: Army chief

By Abdul Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM

The Israeli military resumed striking regime positions in Syria after an Israeli warplane was shot down last month inside Syrian airspace, Israeli Army Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eizenkot said Wednesday.

He did not provide any more details in this regard.

Last month, Israel claimed to have shot down an Iranian aerial drone before striking several targets in Syria.

Shortly afterward, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that Syrian anti-aircraft batteries had shot down an Israeli jet fighter that had entered Syrian airspace.

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post, Eizenkot also vowed to complete construction of a separation barrier around the blockaded Gaza Strip by the end of this year.

He went on to warn that Israeli troops would use live ammunition if Israel’s “security infrastructure” was threatened during planned mass Friday rallies in the Gaza Strip.

According to Eizenkot, Israel plans to reinforce the Gaza-Israel security fence and deploy large numbers of troops along the border to prevent “infiltration” into Israeli territory.

Dubbed the “Great Return March”, all Palestinian factions have endorsed Friday’s rallies, during which demonstrators plan to converge en masse on the Gaza Strip's 45-kilometer-long eastern border with Israel.

Since 2007, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has gutted the coastal enclave's economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of basic commodities.