In a similar act of violence before midnight Thursday, at least five civilians were killed when Israel carried out an airstrike on an area in Syria’s Quneitra close to the Israeli-occupied side of Golan Heights. Ahmad Sheikh Abdul-Qader, governor of the southern region of Quneitra, said the attack happened on the road leading to the village of Khan Arnabeh, near Kom, and destroyed the auto.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, also confirmed five people had been killed, saying two pro-regime militiamen were among them.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the Islamic Jihad force which carried out Thursday’s fire was under the operational command of an officer of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
No one was reported wounded by the rockets that landed in Israel. It had previously threatened reprisals should one of its activists in Israeli detention, Mohammed Allan, die of a hunger strike.
Israeli forces launched an artillery and aerial attack on Syrian military positions in Golan Heights in retaliation against the country’s government for failing to prevent an attack by “Iran-funded Islamic Jihad” group. Most of its followers are in the Gaza Strip, an area bordering Israel, which is dominated by the Hamas group.
The Golan Heights plateau is divided between Israeli and Syrian control.
Syrian TV, in the meantime, stated the air raids aimed to “increase the morale of terrorist organizations”, claiming that Israel is backing militants within the space.
The Islamic Jihad has denied its involvement.
“The attack has also occurred before the ink on the… nuclear agreement has even dried and provided a clear indication of how Iran intends to continue to pursue its destabilizing actions and policies as the global sanctions regime is withdrawn in the near future”, the statement said.
Iran says it has ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), which are capable of striking both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Tel Aviv University expert on matters about Syria Eyal Zisser explain to Bloomberg that the current violence is a part of an “ongoing story, where from time to time there are efforts by Hezbollah to organize groups to attack Israel”.
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A day earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned that Israel would respond decisively to any aggression on the northern border.
