Israel Claims Russian Military Jet Violated Airspace
Moshe Yaalon Image by Getty Images
A Russian military jet violated Israeli airspace but was not shot down, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
The jet breached Israeli airspace by a mile and turned back when Russia was informed of its mistake, Yaalon said Sunday during an interview on Israel Public Radio. The breach came recently while Russia was carrying out airstrikes against rebels in the Syrian civil war.
“Russian planes do not intend to attack us, which is why we must not automatically react and shoot them down when an error occurs,” Yaalon said a week after Turkey downed a Russian jet that it said repeatedly violated Turkish airspace.
Israel is coordinating with Russia to prevent the accidental downing of its planes while operating in and around Syria, Yaalon said. The defense chief noted a hotline to share immediate information.
Israeli and Russian officials met in September to coordinate after Russia announced it would operate in Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
One year ago, Israeli forces shot down a Syrian warplane that penetrated Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
