The Security Cabinet of Israel ended an emergency meeting on Tuesday and expressed its sorrow over the downing of a Russian plane last week, which killed 15 military personnel.
“The ministers share in the deep sorrow of the Russian families and the Russian people after the loss of life of the aircrew of the Russian plane, that was downed by irresponsible Syrian fire,” the security cabinet said in a rare statement after the meeting, as reported by Haartez.
In the meantime, Syrian regime troops are expected to receive S-300 missile defense systems from Russia within the next two weeks, according to statements Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday.
The system according to the minister is “capable of intercepting aerial attacks at the distance of over 250 km and simultaneously countering several targets.” The announcement comes days after the shooting down of a Russian reconnaissance. “We are convinced that these measures will cool down the ‘hot heads’ and keep them from ill-conceived actions threatening out troops,” Shoigu said in his televised address.
Russia and the Syrian state media said that the missiles were fired by the Syrian military, which lead Moscow to blame Israel accusing it of using the downed plane as “a cover to avoid Syrian fire.”
