The Syrian army said Friday it shot down an Israeli plane and hit a second one as they were carrying out pre-dawn strikes near the famed desert city of Palmyra. 

"Our air defence engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one, and forced the rest to flee," the army said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA. 

The Israeli air force said earlier that it had carried out several strikes on Syria overnight, but that none of the ground-to-air missiles fired by Syrian forces in response had hit Israeli aircraft.