Israel Issues Strong Warning To Syria As Border Region Escalates

I believe we may be on the front end of a dramatic escalation in tension between Israel and Syria. This facts presented in this article are very ominous and war appears imminent:

IDF Chief Issues Stern Warning To Assad Over Rapidly Heating Border

Israel’s military chief issued a severe warning to Bashar Assad on Tuesday, saying the Syrian leader would “bear the consequences” of any more attacks on Israeli forces near the Syrian border.

Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz issued his threat hours after an Israeli jeep came under fire during a patrol in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

The IDF said the vehicle, which had not entered Syrian territory, suffered light damage. It said that the Israeli troops reported a “direct hit” from their return fire — a Tamuz missile, fired seven minutes after the Syrian fire.

Gantz said there was no doubt whatsoever that the routine IDF patrol was inside Israeli territory, and no doubt either that it was deliberately fired upon by Assad’s forces — “from a clearly marked Syrian position… not once, not twice, but three times.” Israel, he said, “cannot allow the Golan Heights area to become a comfortable space for Assad to operate from. If he causes [the situation on] the Golan Heights to deteriorate, he will have to bear the consequences.”

Ehud Ya’ari, a leading Arab affairs analyst, told Channel 2 news on Tuesday night that the situation between Israel and Syria was now “several times more explosive than it was this morning.”

He noted that a Syrian member of parliament, Sharif Shehadeh, warned after the Golan exchange of fire that Syria would respond to any future Israeli attacks; Shehadeh also spoke of “other regional forces” allied with Syria — in reference to Iran and Hezbollah.

Tensions have been rising between Israel and Syria in recent weeks, particularly following two airstrikes executed by Israel earlier this month that targeted Iranian arms shipments bound for Hezbollah via Syria. Israel has not confirmed carrying out the attacks.

The strikes marked a sharp escalation of Israel’s involvement in the Syrian civil war and raised fears that the conflict could turn into a full-fledged regional war.

Later in the day, meanwhile, Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan warned that rockets raining down on densely populated areas in Israel “are only a matter of time” and could happen at any moment.

“The question is no longer will rockets be fired at the large populated areas in Israel, the question is when it’ll happen,” Erdan told reporters during a briefing ahead of a large drill scheduled for southern Israel Wednesday. He said the battles being fought no longer distinguish between the front line and the home front, as missiles and rockets allow strikes far from the battlefield.

“it could happen tonight, it could happen next week,” Erdan said of the next escalation. “Flare-ups along our borders aren’t something dependent only on the IDF or its will.”

Officials Warn Of Syria Conflict Quickly Spiraling Out Of Control

IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz toured the Golan near the border with Syria Tuesday, and told lawmakers that tensions in the north could quickly devolve into war.

Other senior officials echoed his worries, with Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan warning that it was only a matter of time before major Israeli cities started getting pounded by rockets.

The statements were made the day before a large Home Front Command drill scheduled for the Ashkelon region in the south of the country, which comes against the backdrop of increasingly harsh rhetoric on both sides of the border.

Gantz Warns Assad: Don't Escalate The Situation

The IDF will not allow Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to escalate the situation along Israel’s northern border, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said on Tuesday.

"If Assad will cause the situation in the Golan Heights to deteriorate, he will pay the price," Gantz said during aconference at Haifa University.

"We will not allow the Golan Heights to become a comfort space for Assad," he stressed. "If he causes a deterioration he will have to bear the consequences. I'm not a litigious person, but he must know that we will know how to protect and also how to respond if necessary."

The remarks were made hours after an incident in which Israel destroyed an unspecified Syrian target, after fire from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border damaged an IDF vehicle.