Russian President Calls on Israeli Authorities to Avoid Escalation Following Aggression on Syria

The Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday evening that Putin called on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call to avoid any step that could result in a new cycle of confrontation in the region, SANA reported.

“They discussed the situation around the actions of the Israeli air force, which carried our missile strikes on targets in Syria,” Interfax quoted the Kremlin as saying.

"The Russian side called for any steps, which might trigger a new spiral of dangerous confrontations for all in the region, to be avoided," the Kremlin press service added.

On Saturday, the Syrian military downed an intruding Israeli fighter jet returning from a bombing raid on an army base in central Syria. The Israeli military confirmed that one F-16 had gone down in Northern Israel, and that its two pilots had ejected and had been located and transferred to hospital. It later announced that one of the pilots was in serious condition.

The Israeli military claimed that it had attacked positions inside the Syrian territory after it intercepted a drone launched from Syria on Saturday. A pro-Syrian military alliance said later in the day that the Israeli claim about a drone intrusion was bogus, noting that Israel had targeted a drone base in Syria whose unmanned aircraft were used against the Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) terrorist group.

Over the past years, Israel has frequently attacked targets in Syria, often claiming that it hit positions or convoys belonging to Iran. This is while Iran has no military presence in Syrian territory, only offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian government fighting an all-out foreign-sponsored militancy.