The Israeli army initially blamed the rocket fire – which it said had been intentionally targeted – on Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group active in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip but not previously known to have a presence in Syria.
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“The enemy aircraft struck a military position in the area of Quneitra at 11:30 p.m. (20:30 GMT Thursday), martyring one and wounding eight soldiers”, said the source quoted by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
The Israeli army said it retaliated against rockets by an Iranian-backed Palestinian faction that hit an Israeli village, setting off fires but causing no casualties.
The report also said that an Israeli air raid overnight in Quneitra had killed a soldier and wounded seven.
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.
Though Israel has no plans to “escalate” the situation, Netanyahu’s office will uphold its policy.
Today, Israel seems to be rolling back that blame, and is now claiming Islamic Jihad was responsible, and that everyone responsible was killed.
Hezbollah has raised its alert level along the border with Israel, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported Saturday, according to Israeli media outlets, “due to Israel’s attempt to drag Syria and Lebanon into a conflict”. Israel has avoided taking sides in the Syrian civil war, which pits the regime of Bashar Al Assad against an array of militants, including ISIL.
The strike was carried out 10-15 kilometers inside Syrian territory, in an area controlled by the Syrian Army.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the nation’s struggle, stated the 5 lifeless have been members of the pro-government Nationwide Protection Forces.
Whether it is high-quality preventive arms smuggling to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran, by bombing weapons convoys, or whether it’s thwarting the intention of carrying out cross-border attacks in the Golan Heights or the Upper Galilee. Other strikes also targeted some military positions to help the “terrorist groups” in that area, the TV said.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, in a statement, accused Iran of seeking to “open a new terrorist front against Israel on the Golan Heights“.
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But he added: “Those countries that are quick to embrace Iran should know that it was an Iranian commander who endorsed and directed the cell that fired at Israel”.
