[7] Israel did not officially confirm responsibility for the bombing, but Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that it could have been behind the attack, saying on 3 February, "I cannot add anything to what you've read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago, but I keep telling, frankly, that we've said – and that's another proof that when we say something we mean it – we say that we don't think that it should be allowable to bring advanced weapon systems into Lebanon.

"[8] The attack in January 2013 was reportedly part of Israel's efforts to stem the flow of sophisticated weapons from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'a Islamic militant group and political party that is designated a terrorist organization by some countries.

Israel's newly re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have notified the United States and Russia of the impending attack a few days beforehand.

[12] Hussam Hush Nawis (also known as Hassan Shateri), a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was supervising a shipment of weapons and rockets to Lebanon and was killed in the airstrike, according to a Free Syrian Army spokesman.

[5][14] According to a security analyst, Amir Rapaport, footage broadcast on Syrian television showed a damaged armored vehicle that seemed to belong to the SA-8 missile system.

[18] The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that rebel forces claimed that other targets were destroyed during the strike on the airbase, including fuel and ammunition depots and a cargo plane that had arrived from Iran.