DAMASCUS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Information Minister Emad Sara said Saturday that Israel was jamming the broadcast of the Syrian official TV channel.

The technicians were working to restore the broadcast of the Syrian official TV, said the minister.

This comes as Israel has carried out several strikes and missile attacks on Syrian military positions on Saturday, prompting the Syrian air defenses to shoot down an Israeli F-16 amid a new escalation between the two arch enemies.

State news agency SANA said the Syrian air defenses hit several Israeli warplanes, which took part in striking several military targets in central and southern Syria on Saturday.

The first Israeli strikes were conducted at dawn Saturday, targeting the T4 airbase in Homs in central Syria.

Later on, the Israeli warplanes struck military positions in the countryside of the capital Damascus, also triggering the air defenses.

The state news agency gave no details over the causalities or losses but said the air defenses largely foiled the Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reports said the Israelis hit 12 targets in Syria, adding that an Israeli F-16 was hit and went down in northern Israel.

Downing the Israeli warplane is a new precedent in the decades-long enmity between Syria and Israel, which has repeatedly targeted Syrian positions during the nearly seven-year-long war in Syria without major responses from the Syrian side.

Israel claimed it's targeting positions of Iranian and Hezbollah weapon depots in Syria, but the recent attack and the downing of the Israeli warplane proved that Syria will no longer tolerate the Israeli strikes.

The attack is the second within three days, as the Israelis launched missile attack from warplanes inside the Lebanese airspace on Jan. 7, targeting a military base near the capital Damascus.

Israel has repeatedly warned that it will not tolerate Iranian influence in Syria or support to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.