The Israeli military says it has launched artillery attacks on Syria after several rockets were fired from Syrian territory towards northern Israel, none of which caused damage or casualties, reports Aljazeera.
The cross-border exchanges early on Sunday came as Israel escalates violence on multiple fronts, including in Gaza, Lebanon, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.
The Israeli military said it had launched artillery attacks and a drone against the rocket launchers in Syria.
There were two rounds of rocket launches 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 launch, which also involved three rockets, set off sirens in northern Israel. There were no reports of casualties. Jordan’s army said debris from a rocket fell into its territory but caused no casualties or damage.
Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV said the rocket launches were claimed by the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
The rocket fire from Syria comes against the backdrop of soaring Israeli-Palestinian tensions triggered by Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in which police fired stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian worshippers gathered for Ramadan prayers.
The site in Jerusalem’s Old City, holy to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, has been a longstanding flashpoint, notably over the issue of Jewish visitors defying a ban on non-Muslim prayer in the mosque compound.
The raids came at a time of heightened religious fervour – with Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian Easter celebrations. Violent scenes from the attacks outraged Palestinians observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan and prompted armed groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to fire a barrage of rockets into Israel.
The Israeli military then bombed several sites that it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
