JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli officials Sunday maintained an uncharacteristic veil of silence over Syrian reports that Israeli warplanes violated its airspace.
For the third day in a row, Israel made no official comments about statements by Damascus that Syria's air defences opened fire on Israeli warplanes for violating Syrian airspace at dawn on Thursday, ratcheting up the tension between the neighbouring foes still officially at war.
In a country notorious for leaks, the Israeli media was left grasping at straws as not one senior official broke with reported instructions not to make any comments on the incident.
For the first time in many reporters' memories, journalists covering the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday were led directly into the meeting room, instead of being allowed to loiter in the hallway and talk to individual ministers.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "specifically instructed ministers not to alk about the incident related to Syria at all," was all that one senior government official would say on the matter.
For the journalists eager for any hint of an official comment, Olmert offered only one cryptic phrase at the beginning of the cabinet meeting.
After praising the army's operations in the Gaza Strip, the premier said: "I appreciate the unrelenting activities of the army, its soldiers and its commanders in these areas, which is done with unparalleled courage. Unfortunately we can't always hand out its details to the public."
Earlier Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan told public radio when asked about the incident: "Those who think that the Syrians are ready to sit down at the table of negotiations are wrong.
"The Syrians cannot say that they want peace and encourage terrorism," said Eitan, a member of Israel's powerful security cabinet.
Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000 over disagreements about the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau the Jewish state seized from Damascus during the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
Syria shelters a number of radical Palestinian groups and is home to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas who tops Israel's most wanted list and heads a movement branded a terrorist organisation by the West.
Israel also accuses Damascus of supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah militia with which the Jewish state fought a devastating 34-day war last year.
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