Update — Sept. 23, 9:38 a.m. ET
The Israeli Air Force says it has downed a Syrian warplane with a Patriot missile close to the border between the two countries, Haaretz reported.
The plane was a Russian-built Sukhoi 24 fighter jet, that is said to have infiltrated Israeli territory.
It crashed in the Quneitra area on the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border. It is the first time since the Lebanon War in the 1980s that Israel has downed a Syrian plane.
The video above, from Haaretz and AFP, appears to show the pilots ejecting safely.
Moment ago, a Syrian aircraft infiltrated Israeli airspace. IDF's Patriot air defense system intercepted the aircraft.
The circumstances of the incident are being reviewed. More information to come.
Haaretz reported that the plane had flown 800 meters west of the border into Israel, before turning around.
The Patriot missile hit the plane when the pilots had already turned around and flown back into Syrian territory. The decision to fire at the jet was made after 1:20 minutes of flight, and the pilots are believed to have successfully ejected, Haaretz said.
Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane had been bombing areas around Quneitra before it was shot down, Reuters reported.
A post on the Israel Defense Forces' blog says that the incident marks: "a continuation of the growing tension this border has experienced in recent months."
It added that: "The Israel-Syria border has been highly unstable over the last months. As the civil war rages in Syria, IDF forces have experienced combat in the region, both from targeted strikes and errant fire."
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the Syrian jet was shot down earlier today during an interview on Australia's ABC 7:30 program.
He said that Israel's defenses had deployed automatically, adding: "Apparently a Syrian fighter aircraft penetrated our air space. We shot it down."
Commenting on the incident, Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said: ""will not allow any element - neither a state nor a terrorist group - to threaten our security and violate our sovereignty."
The ABC News interview with Benjamin Netanyahu can be watched here:
