BICOM

Israeli forces fired on a Syrian Army position yesterday in response to three mortars launched from Syrian territory on Friday.

The mortars landed in an open area in the northern Golan Heights. Air raid sirens were triggered in the Golan Regional Council but no injuries were reported.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported yesterday that three soldiers were killed in the Israeli military strike on its army position in the Queneitra Province. The strike reportedly hit an ammunitions cache, causing it to explode and injuring a further two soldiers, who were later identified by Al-Jazeera as being from the pro-government National Defense Forces.

The IDF confirmed that it targeted a military base that was the source of the mortar attack on Israel. The Israeli army said it was likely that the fire was not intentional, but was spill over from ongoing fighting in the Syrian civil war.

The IDF spokesperson’s office said: “The IDF holds the Syrian regime responsible for events on its soil. We will not tolerate any attempt to undermine Israeli sovereignty or compromise public safety.”

During the six-year Syrian civil war Israel has sustained sporadic mortar attacks. The Israeli policy is usually to return fire to the source of the attack. Israel is also engaged in humanitarian efforts on the Israeli-Syrian border and has treated more than 2,000 injured Syrians in Israeli hospitals.

In related news, on Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri criticised a media tour organised by Hezbollah on the Lebanon-Israel border last week, calling it a “provocation” and claiming he was not aware of the tour in advance.

Hariri spoke during a visit to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters in Naqoura, in southern Lebanon. He urged the UN “to support efforts to secure, as soon as possible, a state of permanent ceasefire” with Israel, claiming that the Lebanese government “is committed to move this agenda forward”.