A view of southwest Syria as seen from the Quneitra countryside on July 8, 2018. Reuters
A view of southwest Syria as seen from the Quneitra countryside on July 8, 2018. Reuters

Israel says it fired salvo on Syria after drone incursion



Israel forces attacked Syrian military positions near the Golan Heights frontier in the early hours of Thursday, causing limited damage, Syrian state media said.

The Israeli military claimed it hit three targets in retaliation for an incursion, on Wednesday, of a Syrian drone which was shot down over the north of the country.

"The [Israeli military] holds the Syrian regime accountable for the actions carried out in its territory and warns it from further action against Israeli forces," it said.

Black-and-white surveillance footage released by Israel purportedly shows missiles hitting what appears to be a hut, a two-storey structure and a five-storey structure amid hilly terrain.

Syrian state media said the positions targeted on Thursday were near Hader village in Quneitra province, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"The aircraft of the Israeli enemy fired several missiles in the direction of some army positions," state media cited a Syrian military source as saying. At least some of the missiles were thwarted by Syrian air defences, they said.

Israel has grown deeply alarmed by the expanding clout of its arch enemy Iran during the seven-year war in Syria. Its air force has struck scores of targets it describes as Iranian postions or arms transfers to Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah.

_____________

Read more

Israel shoots down drone that entered from Syria

Israel warns Syria against armistice violation, as Jordan mulls next move in south

Russia to move 1,000 from de-escalation zone in southern Syria

_____________

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russia on Wednesday that Israel would not seek to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad but that Moscow, Syria's key ally, should encourage Iranian forces to leave Syria, a senior Israeli official said.

Israel has been on high alert as Syrian government forces advance on rebels in the vicinity of the Golan, which Israel took from Syria in the 1967 war. Israel worries Mr Al Assad could let his Iranian allies entrench near its lines or that Syrian forces may defy a 1974 Golan demilitarisation.

Earlier this week, state media said air defence systems struck an Israeli warplane and shot down Israeli missiles targeting the T4 air base in Homs province. Israel neither confirmed nor denied carrying out that strike.

With the help of heavy Russian air power, the Syrian army has seized swathes of Deraa province from insurgents in the south in the past three weeks. The offensive is expected to turn next to rebel parts of Quneitra closer to the Golan.

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950