Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indirectly confirmed that Israel had struck a Syrian military base, saying that Turkey was “clearly” warned not to deploy military forces in Syria, AFP reported, quoted by Vesti.bg.
“We will not tolerate Turkey's gradual military buildup in the south because it poses a threat to us“, Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast on Israeli Army Radio.
He pointed out that Israel had initially sent a principled message against a Turkish military presence at an airport near Aleppo, close to the Turkish border.
“Apparently they didn't hear it, so we made sure they understood it more clearly“, Netanyahu said the day after Israel bombed the “Abu Duhur“ air base in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.
Without explicitly claiming responsibility for the strike, Netanyahu's office said earlier that Israel had repeatedly warned Syria against a Turkish military deployment, which Tel Aviv says would pose a threat to its security.
Israeli army chief of staff General Eyal Zamir, meanwhile, visited Israeli troops stationed in an area in southern Syria. He said the army would not allow a “hostile force to establish itself“ near the Israeli border.
Turkey rejected Israel's claims and said it had no plans to deploy troops in Syria. Relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The US ambassador to Turkey and President Donald Trump's special envoy for Syria, Tom Barak, also condemned the Israeli strikes, calling them an “unnecessary escalation“.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Turkish military delegation recently visited the “Abu Duhur“ airport as part of efforts to restore it and return it to service.