Israel's intelligence minister Yisrael Katz hailed his country's mission to strike a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, details of which were revealed on Wednesday morning.

He said the air raid in the eastern Deir-al-Zour region demonstrated Israel will not allow “those threatening our existence to have nuclear weapons”.

He added in a tweet: “Syria then and Iran today.”

Mr Katz praised then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for destroying the Syrian reactor.

He wrote: “When all accounts are settled, destroying the reactor will stand in Olmert's benefit.”

Mr Olmert stepped down from his leadership role as part of a corruption scandal for which he went on to serve jail time.

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According to Israel, the nuclear reactor was close to being completed, but Syria denied that the site was a nuclear reactor.

In a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: “The motivation of our enemies has grown in recent years, but so too the might of the IDF.

“Everyone in the Middle East would do well to internalize this equation,” he said.