Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on February 17 that it had launched strikes against Syria in response to a rocket attack that targeted the occupied Golan Heights a day earlier.
In a statement, the IDF said its artillery shelled the source of the fire, noting that rockets did not cross into the Israeli-occupied region.
Israeli warplanes also hit an ammunition depot of the Syrian military located near the town of Mahajjah in the northern countryside of the Daraa governorate, according to the IDF.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the IDF shelled the western Daraa countryside and later launched strikes against al-Kam ammunition depots near Mahajjah. The London-based monitoring group didn’t report any casualties.
The rockets that targeted the Golan Heights were likely fired by Hezbollah or Palestinian armed factions as a form of protest to the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 28,000 people.
Israel has significantly escalated its attacks on Syria since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, hitting Syrian military positions and targeting members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliates.
Rocket attacks from southern Syria against the Golan Heights also became a regular occurrence. In addition, the region was targeted by suicide drones launched by Iranian-backed armed factions from Iraq more than once.
In an attempt to de-escalate tensions between Syria and Israel, the Russian Military Police established a series of observation posts along the Golan front. Fighter jets from the Russian Aerospace Forces also began conducting patrols there.
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