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Israel Says It Shot Down Syrian Fighter Jet Philippines Pulls Troops From Zone Near Syria
(about 14 hours later)
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said on Tuesday morning that it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had “infiltrated into Israeli airspace,” the first such episode in at least a quarter-century. The four-decade-old United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Golan Heights region between Israel and Syria, largely curtailed last week because of Syria’s civil war, was further undermined on Tuesday with confirmation that the Philippines contingent was going home. 
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said a Patriot air-defense system had intercepted a Russian-made Sukhoi warplane over the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights around 9:15 a.m. Brig. Gen. Ram Shmueli, a former head of intelligence in the Israeli Air Force who is now serving in the reserves, said that the pilots of the jet, which he identified as an Su-24, had ejected safely in Syrian territory. President Benigno S. Aquino III of the Philippines said in an interview while attending the United Nations Climate Summit that most of the Filipino soldiers, having retreated from the buffer zone between Israel and Syria to the Israeli side last week because of Syrian insurgent attacks, had departed for the Philippines, with the rest to follow.
“We cannot tolerate any penetration of the Israeli airspace, so we had to shut him down even though we understand that his intention was not to attack us,” General Shmueli told reporters in a conference call, saying the aircraft had flown half a mile into Israeli airspace. “We are not involved in the war in Syria, and we don’t have any intention to be involved. We have to keep our borders safe on one side but we have to make sure we are not part of this war.” Mr. Aquino has grown increasingly exasperated with the Golan peacekeeping operation, known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, or Undof, which is ill equipped to deal with heavily armed Syrian insurgents who have encroached with growing frequency.
Israel has responded on several occasions in the last three years to what it has described as errant fire from the Syrian civil war that landed in the Golan Heights. In August, Israel shot down a drone from Syria. The peacekeepers have not been permitted to significantly strengthen their own arsenal despite recurrent threats of kidnapping and attack. A group of Filipino soldiers was abducted in March 2013 by one Syrian rebel faction, and last month two outposts staffed by Filipinos came under insurgent assault.
Amos Harel, the military correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, said that Israel had not intercepted a piloted Syrian aircraft since 1989; General Shmueli put the date at 1985. “The rules of engagement, the terms of engagement, are not really clear,” Mr. Aquino said in explaining why the contingent, which numbers about 300 troops, or roughly a quarter of the Undof deployment, was going home.
Though Israel and Syria remain technically at war, the armistice line established in 1973 had been quiet for four decades until the Syrian civil war moved toward it. This summer has seen intense fighting on the Syrian side of the cease-fire line, with rebels taking control of territory near Quneitra, where they recently seized dozens of United Nations soldiers that patrol the area. It was unclear when, or even whether, the Filipino forces would be replaced in the Undof operation, which also includes troops from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal and the Netherlands, some of them also subjected to attacks from the Syrian side.
Al Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, released 45 Fijian members of the United Nations peacekeeping force unharmed on Sept. 11 after holding them for two weeks. Al Nusra forces also surrounded two groups of Filipino members of the force, exchanging fire with one of the groups before the Filipinos escaped safely into an Israeli-controlled zone. Forty-five Fijian soldiers were abducted last month by the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, but released unharmed on Sept. 11 after two weeks.
Eitan Ben Eliyahu, a retired major general who was commander of the Israeli Air Force from 1996 to 2000, said he did not believe the Syrian fighter jet’s intrusion into Israeli territory was deliberate, because “the Syrian regime would not dare” to provoke Israel. A United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is politically delicate, said that the Philippines had long signaled its intention to withdraw from Undof, and that after its soldiers were attacked in August, “a decision was made to advance their planned repatriation.”
“It’s hard to analyze and explain and assess the situation, because the situation is absurd,” General Ben Eliyahu said in an interview on Israel Radio. “The fighting there is right on the border fence, and when planes are involved, because of their speed and altitude and ability to spot the targets, it is easy to make mistakes. We, of course, cannot permit this.” The official said none of the other contributing countries had withdrawn. But he said their ability to monitor the buffer zone had been greatly reduced because most had been redeployed, at least for the time being, to the Israeli side for their own safety.
He said he did not consider the episode a threat, “but it reminds us of the mess over there.” Undof and the peacekeeping operations department “are working to determine how the force will be reconfigured to ensure that Undof is able to execute its mandated tasks in the current exceptionally challenging environment,” the official said.
General Shmueli, the former head of air force intelligence, said that the interception of the Syrian jet had nothing to do with the American-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants inside Syria, and that he did not expect the episode to prompt a Syrian response against Israel. The absence of an international presence in the area of separation, created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, has added new instability to the frontier between Israel and Syria, which technically remain in a state of war. 
“I believe it’s an isolated event, I don’t see any escalation,” he said. “I believe the Syrians know we don’t have any intention to be part of this war. They know our policy ahead of time because we say it clearly, loudly and publicly.” That instability was reinforced Tuesday when Israel said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet over the Israeli-controlled Golan that the Israelis contended had strayed into their airspace. It was the first time in at least a quarter-century that the Israelis had downed a Syrian warplane.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said a Patriot air defense system had intercepted a Russian-made Sukhoi warplane around 9:15 a.m. Brig. Gen. Ram Shmueli, a former head of intelligence in the Israeli Air Force who is now serving in the reserves, said the pilots of the jet, which he identified as an Su-24, had ejected in Syrian territory.
Israel has responded on several occasions in the last three years to what it has described as errant fire from the Syrian civil war that landed in the Golan Heights. In August, Israel shot down a Syrian drone.
Eitan Ben Eliyahu, a retired major general who was commander of the Israeli Air Force from 1996 to 2000, said he did not believe the Syrian fighter jet’s intrusion was deliberate because “the Syrian regime would not dare” to provoke Israel.
“It’s hard to analyze and explain and assess the situation because the situation is absurd,” General Ben Eliyahu said in an interview on Israel Radio.