In response to at least ten projectiles launched from Syria that landed inside Israeli territory, the Israel Air Force on Saturday carried out retaliatory strikes targeting the positions from which the mortars originated.
“Furthermore, the IAF targeted two tanks belonging to the Syrian regime in the Northern Syrian Golan Heights,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement sent to news media outlets, including Breitbart Jerusalem.
Earlier on Saturday, the IDF instructed Israeli civilians to stay away from the border area near Quneitra, the small village near the Golan Height’s border with southern Syria that falls within a zone formerly demilitarized by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The IDF believes that the mortar shells that landed in Israel where likely spillover fire launched by groups fighting across the border in Syria.
Local Syrian media reports claimed that two people were killed in Quneitra in the Israeli retaliatory attacks. Those reports could not be immediately verified.
“Due to the unacceptable breach of Israeli sovereignty, an official protest has been filed with UNDOF,” the IDF said on Saturday.
The IDF warned against any “attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel or the security of its residents, and sees the Syrian regime as responsible for what is happening in its territory.”
The Israeli military released footage Saturday evening of several air strikes carried out against Syrian military targets after numerous mortar shells hit the Golan Heights from Syria.
The black-and-white video showed strikes against two Syrian tanks as well as a heavy machine gun.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which has been reporting on Syria’s six-year war, said two Syrian soldiers were killed in the Israeli strikes. Syrian officials confirmed several deaths, though they did not provide details.
The air raids came after some 10 mortar shells hit Israeli territory around the Quneitra area on Saturday afternoon. There was no damage and no injuries were reported in the mortar attack.
The Israeli army said the mortars appeared to be errant fire from Syrian factions fighting each other across the border. Still, it held the Syrian regime responsible for attacks coming from within its territory.
The Observatory reported fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels in Quneitra. Syrian officials said army forces had been engaged in fighting with forces of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.
They accused Israel of striking Syrian army targets to aid the rebel forces.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned that the regime would continue to “suffer the consequences” of any attack on Israel emanating from its territory.
Israel, he said, had “no intention of accepting challenges to our sovereignty and threats to our security, even if they are caused by ‘spillover'” from Syrian infighting.
“We will respond strongly, resolutely and with level-headedness to any such case,” he said. “As far as we are concerned the Assad regime is responsible for what occurs in its territory and will continue to suffer the consequences if such events recur.”
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