JERUSALEM: The Israeli military says it has launched airstrikes and artillery attacks on Syria after several rockets were fired from Syrian territory towards northern Israel, none of which caused damage or casualties.
The cross-border exchanges took place early Sunday amidst a rise in violence on multiple fronts, including in Gaza, Lebanon, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military says the latest Air Force raids in Syria hit a military compound of the Syrian army’s 4th Division, as well as a radar and artillery posts used by the army.
It said the attacks were a response to six rockets launched from Syria toward the Golan Heights last night and early this morning, of which three crossed into Israeli territory.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier responded with artillery and drone strikes targeting the rocket launchers used to fire the projectiles.
Two rounds of rockets were launched from Syrian territory in the early hours of Sunday, it said. The first involved three rockets, one of which landed in a field in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
The second set of strikes, also involving three rockets, set off sirens in northern Israel. There were no reports of casualties.
Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV said Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, claimed responsibility for the rocket launches.
The escalating conflict in the occupied territories has played out against a backdrop of ongoing religious occasions — Ramadan for Muslims, Passover for Jews and Easter for Christians — worsening hostilities and soaring existing tensions between separate communities.
Israeli raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque
Raids by Israeli forces on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the most holy Muslim site in Jerusalem, have triggered a spike in violence that continued to spiral in recent days, drawing several regional actors into a deadly back-and-forth.
Scenes from the attacks showing Israeli police committing violence against worshippers have gone viral in recent days, outraging Palestinians observing the holy month of Ramadan and prompting armed groups in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip to fire a barrage of rockets into Israel.
In return, the Israeli military has bombed several sites that it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
