Israeli Air Force planes. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen.

Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position in a rural area near Damascus on Wednesday, triggering Syria’s air defense system which destroyed most of the missiles, a Syrian army statement carried by state television claimed.

The statement said several missiles were launched by the Israeli jets from inside the territory of neighboring Lebanon at 03:42 am local time.

“The general command of the armed forces holds Israel fully responsible for the dangerous consequences of its repeated, aggressive and uncalculated adventures,” the army statement said.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “We do not respond to such reports.”

The Syrian army asserted it had destroyed most of the Israeli missiles fired at its position, but did not give details of any damage or casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the missiles targeted “positions of the Syrian army and its allies” in the region of Jamraya, west of Damascus, which was also hit in December.

The Israeli air force has said it has struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and the Lebanon-based Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah nearly 100 times since the war in Syria began more than six years ago.

Israel regards Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as the biggest threat it faces on its borders.

It has grown deeply alarmed by Iran’s expanding clout during the conflict, and has warned it would act against any threat from Tehran.