Israel Katz: Israel to continue destroy Iranian sites in Syria

Tel Aviv’s red-line policy to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria is being upheld with full force, Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said.

"The IDF attack tonight against Iranian Quds Force targets are a clear message to [Quds Force commander] Qassem Souleimani and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," Katz said in a statement.

Citing a dictum of the Talmudic sages — "He who comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first,"- Katz said "anyone who fires a rocket at the Israeli Hermon will pay a high price," Times of Israel reported.

Katz’s comments followed an apparently massive Israeli air bombardment of Iranian weapons storehouses, intelligence facilities and a training camp near Damascus in the early hours of Monday, a strike that the Israel Defense Forces, in a rare move, publicly announced a few hours later.

The army said the airstrikes were in response to a surface-to-surface missile fired at the Golan Heights a day earlier, which was intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery.

Israeli jets attacked Iranian weapons storehouses, intelligence facilities and a training camp near Damascus during a massive overnight bombardment, the Israel Defense Forces said, accusing Iran of firing a missile at Israel a day earlier.