Russia plane enters zone under Israel from Syria

A Russian warplane recently entered Israeli-controlled airspace from Syria but the intrusion was resolved without incident, Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday.

Mr Yaalon’s comments come amid deep concern over the downing of a Rus-sian warplane by Turkey, which claims it strayed over the Syrian border into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings to change course. Moscow denies the allegations.

“There was a slight intrusion a mile deep by a Russian plane from Syria into our airspace, but it was immediately resolved and the Russian plane returned towards Syria,” Mr Yaalon told public radio. “It was apparently an error by the pilot who was flying near the Golan.”

Israel seized most of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed the territory in a move never recognised by the international community.

Mr Yaalon recalled that Israel and Russia had made arrangements to avoid cla-shes over Syria, with the agreement said to include a “hotline” and information sharing. He said “Russian planes do not intend to attack us, which is why we must not automatically react and shoot them down when an error occurs.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladi-mir Putin held talks in Moscow in September to discuss ways of avoiding accidental clashes.