“It targeted a Syrian military-scientific center for the development and manufacture of, among other things, precision missiles which will have a significant role in the next round of conflict,” he said. Yadlin also pointed out the factory in Masyaf “produces the chemical weapons and barrel bombs that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians.”

But the reported Israeli strike isn’t unprecedented. Last month Major General Amir Eshel, the outgoing commander of the Israel Air Force, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Israeli jets had hit convoys supplying Hezbollah nearly 100 times over the past five years. The Shia militant group from Lebanon is supported by Iran, and its fighters are battling on Assad’s side in the Syrian civil war.

Israel finds itself in a precarious position as the Syrian civil war grinds on: The United States, its main global ally, has struck a deal with Russia, Syria’s main benefactor, on a cease-fire that is mostly holding; Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now more in control of his country than at any point since the civil war began more than five years ago; and Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat, and Hezbollah, which it battled for years in Lebanon, have emerged even stronger than they were before the conflict began.

Thursday’s strike, while signaling to its adversaries that Israel will not sit by as forces inimical to it gain strength, also sends a message to the Trump administration that any political resolution of the Syrian conflict must take into account Israel’s long-term security interests. Israel has diplomatic relations with only two of its immediate neighbors, Egypt and Jordan. While it has an unacknowledged relationship with Saudi Arabia, arguably the most important Arab nation, forged on their mutual antipathy toward Iran, Israel views its immediate neighbors as strategic problems. It occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years until 2000, first to fight Palestinian militants and then to battle Hezbollah; and Syria, where the Assad regime has increased its reliance on Tehran.

Israel has not hidden its concerns about the U.S.-Russia deal on July’s draft agreement for a cease-fire in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that for peace to take hold in Syria, Iran and Hezbollah must withdraw from the country, adding Israel might act unilaterally to protect its interests. Last month Netanyahu told UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was visiting the country, that Iran was building facilities in both Syria and Lebanon to make precision-guided missiles.

Israel views Hezbollah as such a formidable threat it recently concluded a 10-day drill to simulate war with the Shia militant group in the event of multiple infiltrations. Haaretz called it the largest such drill in decades.