Israeli fighter jets struck an anti-aircraft battery in Syrian territory on Saturday night after a Syrian anti-aircraft missile exploded in Israeli airspace, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
The missile exploded over southern Israel, with shrapnel found in the Bedouin town of Rahat. The IDF said that there were no casualties, and no special instructions were issued following the incident. No sirens were activated. Residents of the south and center reported hearing the explosion.
“It fell right next to the children’s bedroom, we were very lucky,” a Rahat resident was quoted as saying by Kan News.
Simultaneously with the missile’s detonation shortly after midnight, Syrian media reported air defenses had responded to an Israeli aerial attack in the Homs area in the western part of the country.
The Israeli attack came from northeast of Beirut, and caused material damage, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.
Rahat is some 257 miles from Homs and around 142 miles from the Syrian border. Reports indicated that the Syrian missile was a Russian-made S-200 long-range surface-to-air missile.