Israeli forces foiled an attempt to place a bomb along the border with Syria, opening fire and hitting four “terrorists,” the Israel Defense Forces said after midnight Sunday.
The incident comes with the military on high alert for an attack by Hezbollah, which is seeking revenge for a fighter killed in an airstrike attributed to Israel.
“A short time ago, an IDF force foiled an attempt to place explosive devices along the border with Syria,” the army said in a statement. “Special forces that were carrying out an ambush near an IDF post in the southern Golan Heights spotted a cell with a number of terrorists planting explosive devices along the border.”
The army said “an IDF force and an aircraft opened fire together on the four-member cell and hit them.”
There were no casualties to the IDF.
The statement noted that IDF forces in the north were on a high level of alert and warned Syria that that Israel holds Damascus responsible for any attacks emanating from it’s territory.
While the statement only said the terrorists were “hit,” an IDF spokesperson tweeted they were now “former terrorists” and indicated they were killed.
The incident came amid peak tensions in the area as the military braced for violence by Hezbollah along the border after an alleged attempted attack by the terror group last Monday. Hezbollah has also been active in Syria, where it fought in support of the Assad regime.
Over the past weeks, Hezbollah has threatened some form of retaliation for the death of one of its fighters last week in Syria in an airstrike that it attributed to Israel, but which the Jewish state has not officially acknowledged conducting.
Bracing for the attack, the IDF said it was sending additional “advanced” firepower in the form of precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles, additional combat intelligence units and special forces to the area.
Israeli war planes hit several Hamas sites in central and southern Gaza Strip early Monday, Palestinian media reported, hours after Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from the coastal enclave.
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Hamas-linked al-Resalah news said that the IDF bombed “a resistance site” west of Khan Younis and agricultural land to the east of the town.
It also said that three missiles were fired at “a site affiliated with the resistance,” west of Rafah.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
The rocket triggered sirens in Israeli communities northeast of the Gaza Strip, sending tens of thousands of residents to bomb shelters.
“One [rocket] launch was detected from the territory of the Gaza Strip toward Israel, which was intercepted by aerial defense soldiers,” the military said.
A fragment of the Iron Dome interceptor missile apparently struck a vehicle in the southern town of Sderot, shattering the back windshield.
The sirens were heard in Sderot, as well as the smaller communities of Ibim, Erez, Or Haner and Nir Am in the Sha’ar Hanegev region.
Residents of the area reported hearing the sounds of explosions.
The attack came as Sderot inaugurated a new drive-in movie theater, with dozens of cars full of people watching the maiden film.
The attack also occurred shortly after Brig. Gen. Nimrod Aloni took over as head of the IDF Gaza Division. In a ceremony at the division headquarters in Reim, Aloni took over the position from Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, who has served in the role since 2018.
It was the first time that rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip in nearly a month.
On July 5, terrorists in the enclave fired three rockets into southern Israel. In response, the IDF bombed a number of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
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