Defense Minister Benny Gantz at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York. (Screenshot/Jerusalem Post video)
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently shared a map depicting more than 10 different facilities in Syria’s Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques (CERS) that allegedly produce advanced missiles and weapons for Iran and its allies, according to several Israeli media outlets.
"Iran transformed CERS into production facilities for mid- and long-range precise missiles and weapons, provided to Hezbollah and Iranian proxies," Gantz he said at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on Monday.
"These sites host significant threats to the region and to the State of Israel. [The city] Masyaf, specifically, is used to produce advanced missile," he added.
According to the Israeli minister, "the Iranians are currently working to build missile and weapon industries in Lebanon and Yemen." He accused Iran of wanting "to establish itself in the region by setting up terrorist industries," and of spending more than a billion dollars on the project each year.
In the past few years, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, targeting regime positions as well as Iranian and Hezbollah forces— major allies of Damascus and sworn enemies of Israel.
Israel has acknowledged conducting these strikes since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, but rarely comments on them on a case-by-case basis. The Israeli military has defended the strikes as necessary and says it wants to prevent Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.
Roughly 10 days ago, diplomatic and intelligence sources in the region told Reuters that Israel has been stepping up its strikes on Syrian airports to disrupt Tehran's increasing use of air supply lines to deliver weapons to its allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
Last Tuesday, Israeli strikes disabled the runway at Aleppo airport, the country's second largest airport, which was previously hit on August 31. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said the strikes also targeted a warehouse inside the airport used by Iranian-affiliated militias. Three deaths were reported.
