IDF Strikes Syria After Mortar Hits Golan

The Fellowship  |  April 23, 2018

A day after PM Netanyahu reiterated the IDF’s willingness to protect Israel against Iran and its allies, such a situation arose on Israel’s border with Syria. The Times of Israel’s Judah Ari Gross reports that the IDF targeted an Assad regime artillery position after Syrian shelling strayed into Israel:

The Israeli army on Monday attacked a Syrian army artillery position after a mortar shell struck the northern Golan Heights, in an apparent case of spillover fighting from Syria’s civil war, the army said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the mortar shell exploded near the border fence earlier on Monday. It appeared to have been fired at Israel accidentally during fighting between Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s military and rebel groups in the region.

In response, the Israeli military targeted an artillery cannon belonging to Assad’s army, which was in the same area of the Syrian Golan Heights from which the mortar shell was fired, the IDF said.

As a rule, Israel targets Assad’s army in retaliation to any attack coming out of Syria, regardless of who was behind it and whether it was unintentional or deliberate.

“The IDF sees the Syrian regime as responsible for every action in its territory and will not tolerate violations of the sovereignty of the State of Israel and the security of its citizens,” the army said in a statement.