Russia has typically not acknowledged the Israeli incursions, but the fighting escalated massively on Wednesday night.
The IDF told Israel’s Channel 10 News that more than 50 targets were hit in the strike, making it the largest attack carried out by Israel in Syria since the two signed an agreement following the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Israel said that around 1 a.m. local time, 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets came streaking intoward northern Israel. The rockets, Israel said, were either intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system or fell short of their targets.
The Iranian barrage was expected. Israel had opened bomb shelters and warned its citizens of an impending attack after several suspected Israeli airstrikes had killed Iranians in Syria and laid waste to hundreds of rockets.
After the salvo, 28 Israeli jets flew over Syria, firing nearly 60 rockets and 10 surface-to-surface missiles, said Michael Horowitz, an analyst at the security consultancy LeBeck International, citing Russia’s defense ministry.