Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee announced earlier Tuesday that Israeli forces attacked a Syrian regime military position in central Golan Heights, in response to a shell that had fallen by mistake in the Israeli-held territory. It said that Syrian air defense shot down a warplane southwest of al-Quneitra, near the Golan Heights, and shot down a drone west of the town of SaaSaa.
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Syria’s army command said in a statement that Israeli warplanes had attacked an army position at 1 a.m. on Tuesday (2200 GMT, Monday) in the countryside of Quneitra province.
Syrian army soldiers are honoured during Saidnaya Festival, near Damascus, Syria September 7, 2016.
The Israeli mission had been conducted to strike Syrian regime targets after a projectile launched from Syria had struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Three projectiles from Syria fell inside the Israeli Golan Heights earlier in the latest incident of spillover from Israel’s war-torn neighbor.
It seized 460 square miles of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the worldwide community.
Israel had repeatedly declared it would not intervene in the internal fighting in Syria.
Israel has regularly bombed Syrian territory during the course of its long civil war after fighting in Syria spilled onto the Israeli border.
Reporters linked to the Syrian government stated on social media that the missiles were of the S-200 model, the report said.
The news agency went on to quote a “military source” as saying the strikes had destroyed one Syrian artillery battery and had damaged another.
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On Monday evening, Syrian fire crossed into the northern Golan Heights as a nationwide ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and Russian Federation came into effect in the embattled country.
