Iron Dome deployed near Tel Aviv, IDF forces fired on from Syria
The army's statement did not identify who fired at the soldiers, nor if any enemy forces were wounded.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: JANUARY 24, 2019 11:46Mount Hermon is seen in the background as Israeli soldiers travel on mobile artillery units after an exercise in the Golan Heights, February 2013(photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
The Iron Dome air defense system was deployed near Tel Aviv, Israel media reported Thursday morning.Overnight, IDF forces operating near the border with Syria were fired upon, according to a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. The IDF returned fire. No Israel forces were reported wounded in the incident.The army's statement did not identify who fired at the soldiers, nor if any enemy forces were wounded.Israel struck in Syria Monday in a retaliatory raid that the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 21 people, 12 of them believed to be members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.That raid, which reportedly targeted 38 sites, followed Iran’s launching of a missile on Sunday toward Mount Hermon that was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery. The missile launch was in response to an unusual Israeli daylight missile attack on Iranian targets in Syria, which Israel immediately took responsibility for.The Israeli attacks triggered a public censure from Moscow on Wednesday, with the Russian Foreign Ministry calling on Israel to stop its “arbitrary” attacks in Syria.“The practice of arbitrary strikes on the territory of a sovereign state – in this case, we are talking about Syria – should be ruled out,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, in answer to a question from Russian news agency TASS about recent Israeli airstrikes on Syria.She said such strikes added to tensions in the region, something she said was not in the long-term interests of any country there, including Israel.“We should never allow Syria, which has suffered years of armed conflict, to be turned into an arena where geopolitical scores are settled,” Zakharova said.Herb Keinon and Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
