Early on Friday, people in Lebanon reported seeing missiles in the sky after Israeli warplanes violated the country’s airspace. Shortly afterward, Syria announced that its air defenses had intercepted Israeli missiles.
At 12:40 am Friday, a barrage of missiles were directed from the north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli, Syria’s state TV said, citing a military statement that confirmed the missiles were aimed at the Syrian town of Masyaf in the Hama countryside.
The statement said that Syria’s air defenses intercepted the missiles and downed most of them, while the state-run news agency, SANA, reported explosions in Masyaf. The Syrian Defense Ministry later confirmed the information.
Videos have since emerged on social media showing what were alleged to be Tomahawk missiles flying through the Lebanese airspace toward Syria.
The attack comes as the Lebanese, who have been recovering from the horrific explosion that traumatized the residents of Beirut on August 4th, celebrated Christmas amid an unprecedented economic meltdown.
While, as of the time of writing, Israel has not commented on the incident, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Israel was “likely responsible” for the attack.
Notably, the Israeli military has struck targets several times before in Masyaf, which harbors a military academy and a scientific research center.
