Israel Declassifies Major Operation to Destroy Syrian Missile Factory as Houthis Send Israelis to Shelters

JERUSALEM, Israel – Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fired a missile at central Israel early Friday, sending Israelis running for shelter well before sunrise. Meanwhile, Israel declassified a major operation from September carried out by the Israel Defense Forces inside Syria against an Iranian missile factory.

The IDF determined the factory was used for building killer missiles to be used against Israel.

More than 100 IDF soldiers raided and dismantled the underground compound for building the precision missiles.

The special Air Force operation took place on September 8th and was just revealed this week. 

Israel Air Force Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, the commanding officer, declared, "This was a significant event for the existence of Israel; no less."

Iran funded and supported the establishment of the weapons manufacturing compound, intended to produce hundreds of missiles per year for the Syrian Armed Forces and Hezbollah, and was supposed to be the largest and most important missile manufacturing compound on the northern front.

It was Iran's flagship project for arming its terror proxies on Israel's northern border.

Israel claims it gathered intelligence and monitored the site for years before the IAF launched the operation to destroy it.

Bar stated, "We can be proud and we can tell future generations that we did something significant for the security of Israel."

The soldiers were brought to the site and picked up after the operation by Israeli helicopters, with support from the Air Force and Navy.

The entrance was through the side of a mountain. The forces discovered advanced assembly lines and critical machinery for manufacturing precision missiles and long-range rockets.

They also found weapons and intelligence documents, which were transferred for investigation. The soldiers destroyed the compound and safely returned to Israeli territory.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi believes there was good reason to send such a large force to a distant land, and they were confident they could succeed.

"This site (was) about to start producing, each year, a very large quantity of missiles, which would pose a significant problem to Israel's security," Halevi explained. "They (missiles would) be scattered to different places and land in various hands, and we have no intention of allowing that to happen." 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is recovering from surgery, released a statement commending the soldiers for the heroic operation. 

He said, "This was one of the most important preventative operations that we have taken against the efforts of the Iranian axis to arm itself in order to attack us; it attests to our boldness and determination to take action everywhere to defend ourselves."

Inside Iran, a cheering pro-government crowd chanted, "Death to Israel, death to America," and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called America, Europe, and Israel "barbaric, anti-human liars."

"We will stand on the path of righteousness and will bring these cowards to their knees with our power," Pezeshkian boasted.