Israel hits Syrian army positions after Golan projectile

Israeli aircraft struck Syrian army positions early Tuesday after stray fire from its war-torn neighbour hit the Israeli-held zone of the Golan Heights the previous day, the military said.

The Israeli strike targeted “artillery positions of Syrian Regime in the central Syrian Golan Heights” in response to “a projectile” which on Monday had hit the northern Golan causing no injuries, an army statement said.

A military spokeswoman told AFP Monday’s projectile was most likely not intentional, rather spillover from “internal fighting in Syria.”

It was the fourth such incident in nine days, and came as a new Syrian ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States came into force on Monday.

The initial 48-hour truce does not apply to areas held by jihadists such as the Islamic State group.

The Israeli army holds the Syrian government accountable for any fire from its territory, regardless of its source.

There were similar events in July and previously.

Israel has sought to avoid being drawn into Syria’s complex war which is now in its sixth year, but it has attacked Syrian military targets when fire from the conflict spills over.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.