IDF retaliates into Syria after gunmen shoot at Israeli soldiers on Golan Heights

 

IDF statement reads ‘hit confirmed’ on Syria gunmen.

Mortar shell falls on Israeli side hitting Druze village of Majdal Shams, leaving no casualties, in apparent spillover from Syria civil war.

By Reuters &

 

 

The Israeli army fired into Syria on Monday after its troops were shot at on the Golan Heights, the military said.

Israeli soldiers sit atop a tank as they watch the border with Syria

Israeli soldiers sit atop a tank as they watch the border with Syria near the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria, on the Golan Heights July 3, 2013.- Photo: Reuters

“Gunfire was opened from Syria toward IDF soldiers in the central Golan Heights. The force retaliated toward the threat and a hit was confirmed,” a military statement said.

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.

An Israeli military source said that the brief exchange of fire happened near the Quneitra border crossing and that the Israeli troops said they were fired on by a Syrian soldier.

The army was still checking whether its troops were the target of the gunfire, the source said.

Hours earlier, a Syrian mortar shell landed in the Druze village of Majdal Shams on the Golan, near Israel’s security fence. No casualties were reported.

Fire from the Syrian civil war has occasionally spilled over into the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel annexed the strategic plateau in 1981 in a move that was not internationally recognized.

 

View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.561330