Press TV - Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says the downing of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet by the Syrian air defense systems will establish new rules of engagement with the Tel Aviv regime’s acts of aggression.
“What happened is larger than a battle and a little less than a war. It will create new balances and rules of engagement in the region,” Lebanon’s Arabic-language daily newspaper al-Joumhouria quoted Berri as saying on Monday.
He added, “This event is the first of its kind in tens of years. However, no escalation is expected. Things will end here; they will not develop into an all-out war.”


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="555"] Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri speaks at a news conference in Ain al-Tineh, Lebanon, on May 29, 2017. (Photo by the Daily Star newspaper)[/caption]
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, praised Syria’s downing of an Israeli F-16 warplane as “an important and heroic response” to the Tel Aviv regime’s years of aggression.

Abu Obeida stated on Monday that the incident dealt a heavy blow to the Israeli air force.


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="555"] Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Hamas resistance movement (Photo by Palestinian Safa news agency)[/caption]
“We should fully support this pioneering move,” he said, calling for “further attacks on the Israeli enemy in a bid to clip its wings and deter its aggression against Arab and Muslim nations.”
On Saturday, Syria’s state television, citing an unnamed Syrian military official, reported that air defense systems had struck at least one intruding Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft.

The official added that the aircraft had targeted a Syrian army base in the central region of the country, and that more than one Israeli warplane had been shot down.

A pro-government military alliance in Syria said in a statement that Israel would see a severe and serious response to its "terrorism" from now on.



Hamas has announced in a statement that its fighters and the Palestinian nation stand by Syria in the face of Israel’s latest act of aggression against the Arab country plagued with foreign-sponsored militancy.

“We commend the Syrian response to the Israeli aggression. We affirm that Palestine stands by Syria in the face of this hostile move,” Ismail Radwan, a senior official of the movement, said in an exclusive interview with Arabic-language Quds Press International News Agency on Saturday.

He also condemned Israeli attacks on Syria, stressing that Damascus had the right to self-defense against Israeli assaults.