Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed today that Israel carried out an airstrike in Syria on Friday, in a rare public confirmation of such attacks.

The Israeli PM said the country successfully blew up an Iranian weapons storage facility at Syria's biggest airport.

'Just in the last 36 hours the air force attacked Iranian warehouses containing Iranian weapons in the Damascus International Airport,' Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting today.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed today that Israel had carried out an air strike on Iranian weapons in Syria

'The accumulation of recent attacks shows that we're more determined than ever to act against Iran in Syria, just as we promised.'

Netanyahu added that Israel had attacked Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria hundreds of times.

It's a rare public announcement of Syrian airstrikes from Netanyahu - but he may be looking to burnish his security credentials with an April 9 election on the horizon.

Syria's official SANA news agency claimed it had shot down most of Israel's missiles, and that the attack was largely unsuccessful. But it did admit that a warehouse in the airport had been hit.

The Israeli leader said the accumulation of recent attacks shows Israel is 'more determined than ever to act against Iran in Syria, just as we promised'

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where it is backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime alongside Russia and Hezbollah.

Uncharacteristically, outgoing military chief of staff Gadi syria also spoke publicly of Syrian airstrikes in interviews in recent days.

Eisenkot told the New York Times: 'We struck thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit.'