This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.On 8 September 2024, in an operation called Operation Many Ways (Hebrew: מבצע רבות הדרכים), Israeli special forces raided an underground missile production facility at a branch of Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) near Masyaf in the country's northwest.

[3] The targeted facility was used by Iran to supply precision-guided missiles to its allies, including the Syrian government and Lebanese Hezbollah.

In a nearly three-hour operation, the commandos landed at the site by helicopter, where they raided the facility and planted explosives inside.

[7] The SOHR and Western intelligence agencies had previously identified the SSRC as responsible for Syrian chemical weapons and missile development programs.

[3][5] Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011 against weapon shipments to Hezbollah and Iranian forces.

[7] Israeli airstrikes escalated since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023 in response to attacks on northern Israel mostly by Hezbollah from Lebanon and Syria.

[8] According to the IDF, the target of the raid, codenamed "Deep Layer", was an underground precision-guided missile facility used by Iran to manufacture weapons for Hezbollah in Lebanon, Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria, and other Iranian proxies.

[10] Located within a mountain at the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Masyaf, it was over 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Israel.

[9] According to the IDF, the facility was planned by Iran in 2017, following an Israeli airstrike on SSRC that year that destroyed an above-ground rocket engine site.

[9] The IDF said that the facility was not fully active by the time it launched its operation, but had already successfully manufactured at least two missiles and mass-produced rocket engines.

[10][9] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the targeted site, known as "Heer Abbas", contained a factory that was supervised and built by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and used for the manufacturing of medium-range missiles.

It was approved by Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi and air force commander Tomer Bar.

Training by Shaldag and Unit 669 began two months prior to the operation with drills representing several scenarios to ensure that a back-up plan would be available in case something went wrong.

Israel chose to conduct the raid on 8 September due to several reasons, including because it had ideal weather conditions for the helicopters carrying the soldiers.

[9] On the evening of 8 September, around 100 commandos from Shaldag and 20 others from Unit 669 entered four Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion transport helicopters in an airbase in Israel and took off for Syria.

[14][9] Concurrently with the arrival of the helicopters, Israeli fighter jets, drones, and Navy missile boats carried out a wave of strikes on the SSRC facility and other sites in Syria.

[3] The SOHR reported that several structures in the area of the research facility were destroyed on the Masyaf-Wadi al-Oyoun highway and in Hair Abbas, while an Israeli drone was shot down by Syrian defenses in Baniyas.

Israeli forces used double tap strikes in Masyaf, where they struck civilian cars and later hit people who attempted to rescue the injured.

Another team, positioned on a nearby hill, operated a small drone to monitor the raid and kill people approaching the facility.