Sent by Jeremy Issacharoff, the vice director general of Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry, the document said Israel has “credible information” that Thursday’s rocket attack was ordered by “Iranian Operative Saeed Izaadhi” and carried out by the Palestinian branch of militant group Islamic Jihad.
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Five people were killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Syria, Syrian state media and activists reported.
State television quoted the source as saying the strike took place near Quneitra, close to the Israeli-occupied section of the Golan region.
The attack came hours after Israel said it had carried out 14 air strikes on Syrian army border posts in what it said was retaliation for rocket fire from Islamic Jihad.
It said the second set of raids, late on Thursday evening, hit army positions and killed one person, without specifying if they were a soldier or civilian, and wounded seven soldiers. Tanks, artillery and aircraft struck Syrian army targets both near the Israeli border and fairly deep into Syrian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel was only responding to a provocation and was not looking for an escalation with Syria.
“We hope that the other side understands that it’s not worth escalating the conflict”, said the military official.
Yaalon, in an earlier statement, said Thursday’s attack on Israel was launched from positions under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
“The IDF holds the Syrian regime responsible for what is happening in its territory and will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israel’s sovereignty and the security of its citizens”, said the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. In 2013, Tehran granted Syria a credit line of $3.6 billion (€3.2 billion), and, in July, Damascus ratified another $1 billion (€890 million) credit line from Iran, Reuters reported.
Tel Aviv’s warplanes have bombed an area in Syria’s southwestern province of Quneitra after the regime’s military claimed four rockets fired from the Syrian soil hit northern Israel.
On Thursday, Israel accused the Iranian-backed group of firing rockets from Syria into northern Israel.
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“For the last 35 years, Iran was able to assist resistance movements led by Hezbollah and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip despite imposed sanctions against it”, said Arab sources.
