Israel launches strikes into Syria after rocket attack
Rockets hit an Israeli village near the Lebanese border on August 20 and Israel struck back in the Syrian Golan Heights, saying the rare salvo had been launched there by an Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group.
The group, Islamic Jihad, denied the Israeli allegation. It had previously threatened reprisals should one of its activists in Israeli detention, Mohammed Allan, die of a hunger strike.
Allan ended the fast on August 19 after an Israeli court intervened.
Israeli officials said two rockets struck close to a northern village in the upper Galilee, near the Lebanese border, setting off brush fires but causing no casualties. Air-raid sirens had sent residents to shelters.
The attack was unusual as that frontier had been largely quiet since the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. By contrast, the Israeli-occupied Golan, about 16 km (10 miles) to the east, has occasionally come under fire from within Syria during the four-year-old civil war there.
The Israeli military said in a statement the rockets that hit the upper Galilee "were launched from the Syrian Golan Heights ... by Islamic Jihad, sponsored by Iran".
Israel "holds the Syrian government responsible for attacks emanating from Syria", the army said, adding it had retaliated against targets in Syria.
An Israeli military source said the air force and artillery had struck "five or six times" in the Syrian Golan.
Syrian state TV confirmed Israeli strikes had hit, but said only material damage was done after "several missiles" targeted a transportation center and a public building in the Quneitra area near the Israeli frontier.
Rebel sources in Syria, however, said the strikes hit some of Damascus's military facilities on the Golan. A monitor initially reported casualties but did not elaborate.