Syrian TV reported that an Israeli drone strike destroyed a civilian auto close to a busy market in the village of Kom and killing the five.
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Israel warned Syria it would “suffer the consequences” for the rocket attacks, which it says were masterminded by a senior Iranian official.
At least one Syrian soldier was killed and seven others wounded in the Israeli air strikes, according to a Syrian military source.
“They are capable of being flexible”, Qaq said of Iran and Islamic Jihad. The Israeli airstrikes hit Quneitra’s transportation directorate and governorate building.
The attacks came as a response to four rockets being fired into Israel Thursday afternoon.
It didn’t immediately identify the cell’s political affiliation but said Iran’s al-Quds force, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had orchestrated the launch.
Dore Gold, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Iranian proxies were attacking Israel “before the ink was dry” on the nuclear deal reached last month between Iran and six world powers including the United States.
The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) immediately contacted both the Israel defence forces and the Syrian Arab armed forces to de-escalate the situation, which is now quiet, Xinhua news agency reported.
“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. The identities of the five targets are still in dispute, with the Israeli military claiming they were “Islamic Jihad” fighters, and Syrian state media insisting that those in the auto were civilians.
Israel is lobbying hard in Congress against the agreement, arguing that it allows Iran to preserve its capacity to produce a nuclear bomb and continue to back militant groups in the region, while obtaining relief from crippling economic sanctions.
“We have no wish to escalate events but we are sticking by our policy”, he said in a statement.
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine has rejected Israel’s claims that the resistance movement fired rockets from the Syrian territory against the regime’s positions near the occupied Golan Heights.
Earlier in the day, Israeli media reports said two projectiles landed in an open area near a village in northern Galilee.
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Dawoud Shehab, a spokesman for the group who is based in Gaza, denied it had fired on Israel.
