Israel strikes military targets in Syria after six rockets were launched from Syrian territory

Israeli forces have struck multiple military targets in Syria in retaliation for six rockets launched overnight on territory it controls.

In a rare strike from its northeastern neighbor, Syria fired the missiles into Israel’s Golan Heights in two batches, but only three of the missiles fell on Israeli territory and no one was reportedly injured.

The attack from Syria comes after Israeli forces stormed one of Jerusalem’s most sacred mosques during Ramadan — with videos allegedly showing Israeli police beating Palestinians with clubs and rifle butts inside the mosque.

After the second round of night rockets, Israeli forces confirmed that they had responded with artillery fire into the Syrian territory from which the rockets had been launched.

The military later said they were Israeli fighter jets attacked Syrian Army sites, including a compound of Syria’s 4th Division and radar and artillery posts.

The Israeli army “considers the State of Syria responsible for all activities taking place on its territory and will not allow any attempt to violate Israeli sovereignty.”

The Damascus-based Palestinian group Al-Quds Brigade, which is loyal to the Syrian regime, claimed responsibility for the launch of the three rockets on Saturday, according to Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen TV.

The report quoted the Al-Quds Brigade as saying it fired the rockets in retaliation for the police raid on the sensitive holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

An adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad described the rocket attacks as “part of the past, current and ongoing response to the relentless enemy.”

The cross-border attacks come amid heightened tensions in Lebanon, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank – coinciding with the transition from Ramadan, Passover and Easter.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque raid has sparked more violence in the country and on Friday two British-Israeli sisters, Maya and Rina Dee, were shot dead in the occupied West Bank, reportedly by Palestinian gunmen.

In the first missile strike on Saturday, one missile landed in a field in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Fragments of another destroyed missile fell into Jordanian territory near the Syrian border, the Jordanian military reported.

In the second strike, two of the missiles crossed the border into Israel, one was intercepted and the second landed in an open area.

Israel, which has vowed to end Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, has carried out hundreds of attacks in government-controlled parts of that country in recent years, though it rarely acknowledges them.

Before the latest attacks, Syrian officials had attributed 10 attacks to Israel this year, some of which temporarily disabled Damascus and Aleppo airports and killed civilians as well as Syrian soldiers and Iranian military advisers.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank killed a 20-year-old Palestinian named Ayed Salim in the town of Azzun, Palestinian health officials said.

The Israeli army said its troops fired on Palestinians who hurled rocks and explosives.

More than 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed 19 people during that time, all but one civilian, including the British sisters and an Italian tourist killed in a suspected car crash in Tel Aviv.

Tensions ran high in Jerusalem late Saturday as a few hundred Palestinian worshipers barricaded themselves at the mosque, which stands on a hilltop in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Attempts by Israeli police to disperse believers trapped in the mosque overnight with fireworks and stones sparked unrest at the holy site earlier this week.

The latest escalations led Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to extend the closure of access to Israel for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for the duration of the Jewish holiday of Passover, while police reinforced military forces in Jerusalem to the eve of sensitive religious festivals.

In a separate incident in the northern West Bank town of Nablus on Saturday, a leader of a local independent armed group known as the Lion’s Den claimed that the group had executed an alleged Israeli collaborator who tipped off the Israeli military’s locations and movements of the group members.

Israeli security forces have attacked and killed several key members of the group in recent months.

The murder of the accused man could not be immediately confirmed, but videos in Palestinian media showed medics and residents gathered around his bloodied body in the Old City, where the Lions’ Den rules.

“Traitors have neither a country nor a people,” Lion’s Den commander Oday Azizi said in a statement.

More than 2,000 police officers were expected to be deployed to Jerusalem on Sunday — when tens of thousands of Jews are expected to gather at the Western Wall for the special Passover priestly blessing.

The Wailing Wall is the holiest place for Jews to pray and is located next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where large crowds gather each day for prayer during Ramadan.

Jerusalem Police Chief Doron Turgeman met with his commanders on Saturday for a security review. He accused the militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, of trying to incite violence ahead of Sunday’s priestly blessing with false claims that Jews were planning to storm the mosque.

“We will allow freedom of worship and we will allow the arrival of Muslims to pray,” he said, adding that police will “act with determination and sensitivity” to ensure that all religions can celebrate safely. to celebrate.