Netanyahu appears to acknowledge attack on Iranian targets in Syria

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters about Israel’s operation to destroy Hezbollah-built tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, Dec. 4, 2018. (Israeli Government Press Office)

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to acknowledge an attack on Iranian targets in Syria.

Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, on Monday night before boarding a plane for a conference in Warsaw told reporters in answer to a question that: “We are operating every day, including yesterday, against Iran. All the time. Against Iran and its attempts to consolidate itself in the region.”

Syria’s state –run news service on Monday reported that overnight an Israeli tank fired on a hospital in Quneitra and a nearby military observation post near the border with Israel.

“We operate very many means and very many elements against the Iranian aggression, against their attempt to arm themselves with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Time and again we have exposed their terrorist actions in Europe,” Netanyahu also said.

Netanyahu on Wednesday and Thursday will attend in Warsaw  the  “Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East,” co-sponsored by Poland and the United States and attended by countries from around the world, including the Middle East.

“Our relations with countries in the region, except Syria, are all very good and descriptions to the effect that we have rifts with them are the opposite of reality. The reality is that these relations are becoming tighter. I do not say that they are all open; they are not all open. But part of this is open and how do you say? It is possible to see this above the ground; it is possible to see it in the air,” he said.

He called the conference “a very important achievement.”