Israeli PM vows tit-for-tat response to any threat

JERUSALEM, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will attack any country that threatens the Jewish state.

It is the first official remark from Israel after an alleged Israeli missile strike on a Syrian air base earlier in the day.

"We have a simple rule that we constantly express: Get up and hurt those trying to hurt you," Netanyahu said, without directly mentioning the deadly strike.

"Security in the present is a necessary condition for future security, and what we have here today is a powerful and mighty expression of our future security," he said at a public ceremony in the southern city of Sderot.

Russia and Syria blamed Israel for carrying out an airstrike on the T-4 military air base in Homs Province early Monday.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people, including troops of Iranian forces allied to the government, were killed in the missile strike.

A NBC news report cited anonymous U.S. officials as saying that Israel was behind the attack while Washington was informed in advance.

Under a long-held Israeli policy, Israel refrains from officially commenting or confirming its involvement in air attacks in the territories of its Arab neighboring countries. Enditem