Watching the IDF (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

Might this help to explain the claims?

Taken from an IISS Strategic Comment (mainly behind a paywall) and refers to the drone incident on 10 February 2018:

The Israeli response was apparently spring-loaded. In a large-scale operation, the Israeli Air Force immediately struck the base – Tiyas, or T-4 – from which the drone had been launched and claimed to have destroyed Syria’s main command-and-control bunker at the same time. Simultaneously, it carried out a sweeping attack against Syria’s air defences, resulting in the destruction or incapacitation of half of Syria’s air-defence infrastructure, according to Israeli sources. Iranian installations were also targeted. Israel, for its part, lost an F-16 fighter jetflying at high altitude to a Syrian S-200 anti-aircraft missile over Israeli airspace. This was the first loss of an Israeli aircraft to enemy fire in 38 years, and can perhaps be ascribed to pilot error: the crew evidently failed to take evasive measures, perhaps owing to overconfidence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to clarify the stakes by declaring that henceforth, Israel would not be content with responding to Iranian provocations by striking its facilities in Syria. He stated that next time, Israel would take the fight to Iran itself. Tehran denied that it had launched any drone, describing Israel’s account of the incident as ‘ridiculous’.

Link:https://www.iiss.org/en/publications...-tensions-4410