The Israeli air force struck in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on the Jewish state with drones armed with explosives, the army said Sunday.

The Israeli air force struck in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on the Jewish state with drones armed with explosives, the army said Sunday. While Israel operates regularly in Syria, it rarely acknowledges its actions so swiftly, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning arch-foe Iran it had no immunity from his state's military. In a briefing to reporters, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said that late Saturday the Israeli air force "was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones." According to Conricus, the Israeli attack took place in Aqraba, southeast of Damascus, and targeted "several terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias." The army had on Thursday prevented an earlier attempt to launch the drone attack, Conricus said, without providing further details. "The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity," he said. A Syrian military source quoted by official Sana news agency said that "At 2330 (2030 GMT) anti-aircraft defences detected enemy targets from Golan heading towards the area around Damascus". "The aggression was immediately confronted and so far the majority of the enemy Israeli missiles have been destroyed before reaching their targets," the source added. 'Iran has no immunity anywhere' A correspondent in Damascus heard several large explosions before Sana announced the defensive action. "The aggression is still going on and the air defence can counter the targets, dropping most of them" in the south of the country, the Sana agency said early Sunday. Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria, most of them against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite group that supports Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who is also backed by Tehran. Hours after the strike in Syria, a Hezbollah official said one drone had come down and another had exploded in one of the group's strongholds in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The official could not confirm if the drones were Israeli or if they had been shot down by Hezbollah. Israel says it is determined to prevent its arch-foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad's regime. In a statement issued just minutes after the Israeli army announced its attack, Netanyahu hailed the military's "major operational effort" in thwarting the attack planned by "the Iranian Quds force and Shiite militias." "Iran has no immunity anywhere," Netanyahu said. "Our forces operate in every sector against Iranian aggression." Military spokesman Conricus said Israel held both Iran and the Syrian regime responsible for the planned drone attack, noting that forces in northern Israel were on "elevated readiness to respond to any development". He also noted that while Iranian forces had launched rockets and missiles at Israel from Syria three times during 2018, the use of "kamikaze" drones set to explode on their targets was a new and "different tactic". The Jewish state insists that it has the right to continue to target positions held by Iran and its ally Hezbollah out of self-defence.

Israeli jets hit targets in Syria to prevent Iranian drone attack: army

Hamas must disarm and recognise Israel under a Palestinian unity deal announced on Thursday with its rival Fatah aimed at ending their decade-long split, an Israeli government official said.

&quot;Any reconciliation between the (Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority) and Hamas must include a commitment to international agreements and to the conditions of the Quartet, first of which is recognising Israel and demilitarising Hamas,&quot; the official said in the Israeli government&#39;s first reaction to the deal signed in Cairo.

The official was referring to the diplomatic Quartet on Middle East peace, which includes the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

The reaction was Israel&#39;s first after the two major Palestinian factions agreed on a unity deal in the Egyptian capital on Thursday afternoon, which is supposed to see the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority retake control of Gaza from Islamists Hamas by December 1.

The publicly-released parts of the agreement did not specify what would happen to Hamas&#39; armed wing.

Hamas does not recognise Israel and has fought three wars with the Jewish state since 2008.

&quot;As long as Hamas remains armed and as long as it calls for the destruction of Israel, Israel will consider Hamas responsible for any terror attack originating from Gaza,&quot; the official said.

He also demanded an immediate return of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hamas in 2014, as well as the release of two citizens believed imprisoned by the Islamists.&nbsp;

Hamas does not recognise Israel and has fought three wars with the Jewish state since 2008

Hamas must disarm and recognise Israel under a Palestinian unity deal announced on Thursday with its rival Fatah aimed at ending their decade-long split, an Israeli government official said. "Any reconciliation between the (Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority) and Hamas must include a commitment to international agreements and to the conditions of the Quartet, first of which is recognising Israel and demilitarising Hamas," the official said in the Israeli government's first reaction to the deal signed in Cairo. The official was referring to the diplomatic Quartet on Middle East peace, which includes the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. The reaction was Israel's first after the two major Palestinian factions agreed on a unity deal in the Egyptian capital on Thursday afternoon, which is supposed to see the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority retake control of Gaza from Islamists Hamas by December 1. The publicly-released parts of the agreement did not specify what would happen to Hamas' armed wing. Hamas does not recognise Israel and has fought three wars with the Jewish state since 2008. "As long as Hamas remains armed and as long as it calls for the destruction of Israel, Israel will consider Hamas responsible for any terror attack originating from Gaza," the official said. He also demanded an immediate return of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hamas in 2014, as well as the release of two citizens believed imprisoned by the Islamists.

Hamas must disarm, recognise Israel under Palestinian unity deal: Israel

The decades-old rivalry between the Israeli and Palestinian was visible on the floor of the UN General Assembly on Thursday as their leaders stood poles apart.&nbsp; 
 
Clashing over the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the expansion as soon as he took the podium.&nbsp; 
 
Abbas told the UN that settlement growth is destroying the two-state solution.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;What the Israeli government is doing in pursuit of its expansionist settlement plans will destroy whatever possibility is left for the two-state solution along the 1967 borders,&quot; Abbas warned. 
 
Abbas said the settlements are illegal in all aspects and that the Palestinians were working to &quot;exert all efforts&quot; with Arab and other &quot;friendly countries&quot; to get the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on settlements and the &quot;terror of the settlers.&quot; 
 
He urged the Assembly to recognise Palestine as a state. &quot;Those who believe in the two-state solution should recognise both states&nbsp;and not just one of them,&quot; Abbas said. 
 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly contradict Abbas. 
 
&quot;This conflict has never been about the settlements or about establishing a Palestinian state,&quot; said Netanyahu. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s always been about the existence of a Jewish state, a Jewish state in any boundary,&quot; he added. 
 
Netanyahu said that Haifa, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, all cities in Israel, were &quot;the real settlements they are after.&quot; 
 
Israel has accused Palestinian of inciting violence that has killed 230 Palestinians and 34 Israelis since last October and swept the&nbsp;region.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;We extend our hands to those who want to build peace,&quot; said Abbas, albeit slamming Israeli attitudes. 
 
&quot;It is Israel&#39;s breach of the agreements it has signed and its failure to comply with the obligations that have led us to the deadlock and stalemate that we remain in now.&quot; 
 
Netanyahu strongly criticised the United Nations for showing anti-Israeli bias. But conceded that the issue of settlements in the West Bank was &quot;real,&quot; and it &quot;can and must be resolved in final negotiations.&quot; 
 
Last year the United Nations raised for the first time the Palestinian flag -- a symbolic gesture supported by the majority of UN members after the latest US peace initiative collapsed in 2014. 
 
Palestine is not a full UN member state, though it has observer status. 
 
Israel&#39;s announcement of constructing 463 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank in August was a cause of concern internationally.&nbsp; 
 
A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the UN and the United States -- said construction of settlements on land earmarked to be part of a future Palestinian state is eroding the possibility of a two-state solution. 
 
(WION with inputs from agencies) 
&nbsp;

Netanyahu conceded West Bank issue can be resolved by negotiations but said the real conflict is over existence of a Jewish state

The decades-old rivalry between the Israeli and Palestinian was visible on the floor of the UN General Assembly on Thursday as their leaders stood poles apart. Clashing over the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the expansion as soon as he took the podium. Abbas told the UN that settlement growth is destroying the two-state solution. "What the Israeli government is doing in pursuit of its expansionist settlement plans will destroy whatever possibility is left for the two-state solution along the 1967 borders," Abbas warned. Abbas said the settlements are illegal in all aspects and that the Palestinians were working to "exert all efforts" with Arab and other "friendly countries" to get the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on settlements and the "terror of the settlers." He urged the Assembly to recognise Palestine as a state. "Those who believe in the two-state solution should recognise both states and not just one of them," Abbas said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly contradict Abbas. "This conflict has never been about the settlements or about establishing a Palestinian state," said Netanyahu. "It's always been about the existence of a Jewish state, a Jewish state in any boundary," he added. Netanyahu said that Haifa, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, all cities in Israel, were "the real settlements they are after." Israel has accused Palestinian of inciting violence that has killed 230 Palestinians and 34 Israelis since last October and swept the region. "We extend our hands to those who want to build peace," said Abbas, albeit slamming Israeli attitudes. "It is Israel's breach of the agreements it has signed and its failure to comply with the obligations that have led us to the deadlock and stalemate that we remain in now." Netanyahu strongly criticised the United Nations for showing anti-Israeli bias. But conceded that the issue of settlements in the West Bank was "real," and it "can and must be resolved in final negotiations." Last year the United Nations raised for the first time the Palestinian flag -- a symbolic gesture supported by the majority of UN members after the latest US peace initiative collapsed in 2014. Palestine is not a full UN member state, though it has observer status. Israel's announcement of constructing 463 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank in August was a cause of concern internationally. A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the UN and the United States -- said construction of settlements on land earmarked to be part of a future Palestinian state is eroding the possibility of a two-state solution. (WION with inputs from agencies)

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Abbas warns Israel settlement growth destroying two-state solution

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Israeli jets hit targets in Syria to prevent Iranian drone attack: army

Hamas must disarm, recognise Israel under Palestinian unity deal: Israel

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Abbas warns Israel settlement growth destroying two-state solution