Near-miss near Golan Heights in Syria

Israel almost shot down Russian jet in Syria: report

al-Masdar News,

5 May, 2018

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:05 P.M.) – The Israeli Air Defense almost shot down a Russian fighter jet that was flying close to the occupied Golan Heights, the former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

“In the very beginning of the Russian operation in Syria, there was a case when a Russian pilot almost crossed our border in the Golan Heights,” Ya’alon told the Russian publication

“We used a hotline to contact the Khemeymim Airbase in Syria and told them ‘your plane is about to enter our airspace. Be careful!'”- the former Israeli DM stated..

Ya’alon was one of the founders of the “hot line”, which from the autumn of 2015 allowed the armed forces of the two countries to avoid accidental clashes and other dangerous incidents while conducting operations in Syria.

 One year before this incident with the Russian Aerospace Forces, the Israeli Air Defense downed a similar Syrian Su-24 jet that was flying close to the occupied Golan Heights.

A direct channel of communication channel between the Khmeymim Airbase and the command center of Kiriya in Tel Aviv was established almost simultaneously with the arrival of Russian forces in Syria.