There has been frequent spillover of fighting between the factions in Syria into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but this was the first time Iron Dome was activated to intercept the errant fire.
"An additional projectile fired from Syria was intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defense system. No injuries reported," the military said in a statement, shortly after the system had first activated.
Israel usually retaliates with air strikes against battle stations in Syria.
The military has stationed Iron Dome batteries in areas that have been targeted by cross-border fire, which is most frequently from Paleostinian forces of Evil in the Gazoo Strip. The system usually only fires an interceptor if the enemy rocket is calculated to strike near a populated area.
Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war, keeping watch over the Golan frontier and occasionally carrying out air strikes or returning mortar fire if there is a specific threat.
Syrian soldier said killed by Israeli retaliatory fire on Golan
[IsraelTimes] Syrian rights group, Hezbollah say IDF targeted artillery positions in Quneitra; several Syrian troops said maimed; IDF declines comment
A group monitoring the corpse count in the Syrian civil war said Saturday that at least one Syrian Army soldier was killed by rounds fired from Israeli aircraft operating on the Golan Heights.
| Sometimes you shoot at the target. Sometimes the target shoots back. |
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
’s army in response to an incident earlier on Saturday in which two mortar shells were fired across the border into Israel.
At least one soldier was killed in the attack and several others maimed, according to the observatory. The attacks took place in Quneitra, a city that was destroyed and abandoned in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and serves as an outpost of the Syrian military.
According to the Walla news website, the soldier was identified as Muhammad Hassan a-Sid by Syrians using social media, and his picture was posted on social media websites.
A statement accusing Israel of killing the soldier was also published by Hezbollah. The statement said an Israeli drone attacked the target in Khan Arnabe, a Syrian village flanking Quneitra from the east in the center of the Syrian Golan Heights.
| Drone, IAF rounds (whatever they are): tomayto, tomahto, right? |
On Thursday, Israeli security sources told The Times of Israel that errant projectiles from Syria that have landed on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights over the past two weeks have been fired by Syrian opposition groups as well as by Syrian army forces.