Question Period Note: Israel-Syria Incident, 9 February 2022

On 9 February 2022, an anti-aircraft missile fired from Syria exploded in the air over northern Israel early Wednesday morning.

• Iran is one of the Syrian regime's biggest allies. Their expanded influence in Syria has had a destabilizing effect on the region.
• We support Israel's right to assure its own security, and to take measures, in accordance with human rights and international humanitarian law, to protect the security of its citizens.

An anti-aircraft missile fired from Syria exploded in the air over northern Israel early Wednesday morning, setting off warning sirens in the town of Umm al-Fahm as well as communities in the northern West Bank, the army said. No interception was performed. The anti-aircraft missile had apparently been fired in response to an Israeli airstrike on sites near Damascus. Syrian state media SANA said the country's air defenses "confronted an Israeli aggression" near Damascus. The targets of the Israeli strike were not immediately known.
There have been recurring reports since 2015 of Israeli strikes against Iranian and Iranian proxy forces in Syria. Israel does not typically publically comment or take responsibility for these strikes, with some exceptions.

Similar incidents occurred in April 2021, when Syrian surface-to-air missile exploded over southern Israel near Dimona (where there is a nuclear facility), and July 2019, when Syrian SA-5 missile landed in Cyprus, near the capital, Nicosia.

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