Aletho News

Two Rockets Fired from Syria Hit Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights

Al-Akhbar | January 27, 2015

At least two rockets fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, prompting Israeli forces to return fire, the Israeli army said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Israeli side.

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner claimed in a text message to AFP that the Syrian fire was “intentional, not spillover from the Syrian civil war,” as has sometimes been the case in the past.

A source from within the Syrian foreign ministry told Al-Akhbar English that the rockets were not fired by the army, claiming that they had been launched from rebel-held areas.

In September, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired at a Syrian military position after what it said was stray fire from fighting between soldiers and Islamist rebels close to the armistice line on the Golan.

There has been repeated fire across the ceasefire line since the uprising in Syria erupted in March 2011, not all of it stray.

In August, five rockets fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights and, in July, Israel shelled Syrian army positions when a rocket struck territory it occupies.

Tensions have soared along the ceasefire line since a January 18 an Israeli airstrike killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general near Quneitra on the Syrian-held side of the strategic plateau.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Friday that Israel was prepared for any retaliation by Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

“Israel will hold responsible governments, regimes and organizations on the other side of our northern borders over any violation of Israel’s sovereignty, or an attack on soldiers or civilians,” he said during a tour of the Golan and the nearby border with Lebanon.

Nasrallah said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen last week that Israeli airstrikes on Syria “target the whole of the resistance axis,” in reference to Syria, Iran and Lebanon.

“The repeated bombings that struck several targets in Syria are a major violation, and we consider that any strike against Syria is a strike against the whole of the resistance axis, not just against Syria,” he said, adding the “axis is capable of responding” anytime.

Israel has deployed its Iron Dome missile defense system in the north, where local media say it is amassing tanks and infantry reinforcements.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Syria and Israel are still officially in a state of war.

Observers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) confirmed in a report published in December documenting cooperation and coordination between the Israeli army and militant groups in Syria.

The report revealed ongoing communication between armed groups’ leaders and Israeli army officers.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

January 27, 2015 - Posted by aletho | War Crimes | Hezbollah, Israel, Syria