For the 18th time in a week, Israel bombed Syrian targets in retaliation to Syrian mortar fire.
The IDF targeted a Syrian military position in the Golan Heights on Saturday in response to several mortar rounds fired into Israel earlier in the day.
The explosions occurred in an open space, causing no casualties or damage.
In response, the IDF targeted the Syrian military artillery position from where the projectiles had emanated.
Relating to a similar incident that occurred earlier in the day, IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis stated, “Israel holds the Syrian regime responsible for any breach of its borders and will act accordingly.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the Syrian civil war, reported over the weekend that a mortar shell fell on an area in Khan Arnabah, which is controlled by the Assad regime forces in the countryside of al-Quneitra, causing material damage. This coincided with shelling by the regime forces on areas in al-Hamidiya, a town in the central part of the countryside of al-Quneitra, adjacent to Israel’s border with Syria, SOHR explained.
On Wednesday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the Golan Heights, celebrating a milestone occasion in the city of Katzrin, a rocket fired by Syrian forces exploded in Israel.
“We are here celebrating the 40th anniversary of Katzrin, the capital of the Golan Heights,” he stated. “I said that we will not tolerate spillover and that we will respond to every firing. During my speech shells from the Syrian side landed in our territory and the IDF has already struck back. Whoever attacks us – we will attack him. This is our policy and we will continue with it.”
Opposing factions in Syria’s civil war have been battling heavily in the Quneitra area adjacent to Israel’s northern border, and the fire that hit Israel was estimated to be stray.
While Israel has refrained from intervening in the Syrian conflict, the IDF has responded to stray fire from Syria with artillery shelling and air strikes against Syrian army or rebel positions, in most cases targeting the source of fire.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News