Israel attacks Syria army position

Israel said it attacked a Syrian military position yesterday in the village of Samadanieh Al-Sharqiyah in Quneitra province.

The attack was allegedly in response to a stray mortar shell which landed in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights causing the Israeli army to target “the Syrian military position that fired the mortar”.

The mortar fell while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Katzrin, a town in another part of the occupied Golan Heights about 20 kilometres from the area that has experienced most of the recent stray fire from Syria.

Read: ‘Gaza is a ticking time bomb’, warns Israeli general

“While I was speaking, I said here that we will not tolerate errant shooting and we will respond to all firing. During my speech, there was errant fire from the Syrian side that landed in our territory and the army has already attacked,” Netanyahu said.

Whoever attacks us, we attack them. This is our policy and we will continue to implement it.

There has been an increase in such fire from fighting in Syria hitting the Golan in the past few days. On each occasion Israel has responded by targeting Syrian army positions.

Israel occupied the Golan in 1967.