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Cypriot air traffic control approached an El Al plane en route to Tel Aviv and helped it divert off the Syrian and Lebanese coasts while airstrikes attributed to Israel against Iranian-backed militias in the area were carried out. Friday morning.
The diversion of El Al flight LY66 carrying cargo from Shanghai was detected by Ynet reporter and flight tracker Itay Blumenthal, who posted images of the Dreamliner diverting on its way to Tel Aviv.
The plane landed safely without further incident at Ben Gurion Airport at 1:40 a.m. when Syrian state media said Israel carried out airstrikes in the central province of Hama moments earlier.
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Syria’s official news agency SANA said the attack occurred near the town of Masyaf and that the missiles were fired from Lebanese territory.
At the time of the attack in Syria last night, an Israeli El Al plane was diverted over Cyprus to avoid air defense fire from Syria. pic.twitter.com/Lfdjj0fZqc
– ELINT News (@ELINTNews) December 25, 2020
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-Syrian opposition organization, claimed that the attacks affected Iran-backed militia positions and killed at least six foreign paramilitaries. The claim could not be verified.
He said the strikes were targeting weapons depots and facilities of Iran-backed groups to make short-range missiles.
The Associated Press said Israeli planes flew very low over parts of Lebanon before the attacks, including over Beirut, scaring some of the city’s residents.
The Syrian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that Israel “launched an attack by directing a barrage of rockets” from the north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli towards the Masyaf area.
He said that Syrian air defenses “engaged enemy missiles and intercepted most of them.” Syrian war analysts generally dismiss the military’s regular claims about interceptions as false and empty boasts.
Syrian state television broadcast images purporting to show air defenses in response to the Israeli attack.
There were no comments from the Israel Defense Forces, which generally maintain a policy of ambiguity regarding its activities against Iran and its proxies in Syria, refusing to publicly acknowledge their actions.
Masyaf is an important military area for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad that includes a military academy and a scientific research center. The general area around Masyaf, which is also believed to have a significant Iranian presence, has been attacked by Israel many times in the past.
The latest reported Israeli strikes in Syria took place a month ago in the southern part of the country, near Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights, and allegedly targeted sites associated with Iran and its proxies.
The IDF has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against Iran’s movements to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport advanced game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, mainly Hezbollah. .
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