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Israel Attacks Syrian Positions in Golan Heights Israel Attacks Syrian Positions in Golan Heights
(about 7 hours later)
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its planes had attacked several Syrian Army positions across the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the Golan Heights in response to a bomb attack against Israeli forces along the frontier a day earlier. JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes against several Syrian Army positions across the decades-old Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the Golan Heights early Wednesday came as a specific response to a bomb attack against Israeli forces along the frontier a day earlier, according to Israeli officials. But for many here, the unusually sharp exchange signaled the possibility of a broader Israeli slide into the regional turmoil.
The airstrikes killed one person and wounded seven, Reuters reported, citing a Syrian armed forces statement. The airstrikes, against a Syrian Army training facility, a military headquarters and artillery batteries, were the first in Syrian territory that Israel has openly acknowledged since the Syrian civil war began three years ago, while the bomb attack that prompted them was the first to cause Israeli casualties, wounding four soldiers, one severely. Both events raised the stakes along a frontier that has been mostly quiet for 40 years.
The attacks appeared to be the most intense exchange across the cease-fire line since the Syrian civil war began three years ago and raised the stakes along a frontier that has been mostly quiet for 40 years. The Syrian armed forces said in a statement quoted by the official Syrian news agency, SANA, that the airstrikes killed one person and wounded seven. The statement described the Israeli attacks as a breach of the separation-of-forces agreement that has been in force since the cease-fire that was reached after the 1973 war, which left a portion of the strategic Syrian plateau under Israeli control.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had hit a Syrian Army training facility, a military headquarters and artillery batteries that had “aided and abetted” the bomb attack on Tuesday, when an explosive device was detonated against an Israeli Army patrol. Israeli forces immediately responded with artillery fire against Syrian military positions. The statement added that the Syrian leadership viewed Israel’s “new aggression” as an attempt to divert attention from the recent victories of the Syrian Army, particularly in retaking the town of Yabroud. It warned that Israel’s actions endangered stability in the border area and could open up “all possibilities.”
It was the third bomb attack or attempted attack along Israel’s northern borders in less than two weeks, and it was being viewed in Israel as the most serious because it was the first to cause Israeli casualties, wounding four soldiers, one severely. The Israeli military said the Syrian positions that it had struck had “aided and abetted” the bomb attack on Tuesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Wednesday, “Our policy is very clear: We attack those who attack us.”
The bomb attacks appeared to be attempts to exact revenge for airstrikes against weapons convoys and warehouses that have been attributed to Israel. Israel has refused to confirm or deny involvement in about half a dozen airstrikes over the past year, mostly in Syrian territory, but Israeli leaders have said they will act to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite organization. Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a monthlong war in 2006; Hezbollah is currently fighting in Syria to shore up an ally, the government of President Bashar al-Assad, in its struggle against rebel forces. Moshe Yaalon, the defense minister, warned in a statement that Israel viewed the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad as “responsible for whatever happens in his territory, and if he continues to cooperate with terrorist elements who are striving to harm Israel, we will continue to exact a heavy price in a manner that will bring him to regret his actions.”
In remarks broadcast on Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The frontier with Syria has been filling up recently with jihadi elements and Hezbollah, and this presents a new challenge to the state of Israel.” Israel has declared a policy of neutrality regarding Mr. Assad’s internal struggle against rebel forces, but at the same time, it has been carrying out a covert campaign to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite organization. Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a monthlong war in 2006 and Hezbollah is currently fighting in Syria on the side of the Assad government.
He added, “In recent years we have succeeded in preserving the quiet in the face of the civil war in Syria, and we will act with forcefulness to preserve Israel’s security.” At least half a dozen airstrikes against weapons convoys and warehouses, mostly in Syrian territory, have been attributed to Israel over the past year. Israel has refused to confirm or deny involvement, largely to try to stave off retaliation, but Mr. Netanyahu said on Wednesday in his remarks before the cabinet that Israel was, to the best of its ability, “interdicting the transfer of weapons by sea, air and land, and this activity will continue.”
Hezbollah accused Israel of striking one of its positions on the border between Lebanon and Syria in late February and threatened to retaliate. Israeli analysts said Hezbollah might have felt bound to respond because the latest airstrike appeared to have taken place on its home turf, just inside Lebanon. But the response would be measured, they said, because Hezbollah, deeply embroiled in Syria, has no interest now in setting off a major conflagration with Israel. Further complicating the situation, a senior Israeli military officer told reporters recently that only a third of the Israeli-Syrian frontier in the Golan Heights was under the control of Syrian government forces, and two-thirds was controlled by up to 20 different rebel groups, including radical jihadi forces. Mr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the frontier “has been filling up recently with jihadi elements and Hezbollah,” presenting a new challenge to Israel.
On March 5, Israeli forces in the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights fired at two men who they said were planting a bomb on the Syrian side of the border fence. The Israeli military said the men were “Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists.” Last Friday, a large explosive device was detonated against an Israeli Army vehicle patrolling adjacent to the Israeli-Lebanese border. The blast damaged the vehicle. But Wednesday’s airstrikes came in a different context from the covert campaign against the weapons transfers, as did Israel’s pointed confirmation that it had carried them out. “It was a retaliatory attack and it was meant to deter,” said Ron Ben-Yishai, the military affairs analyst for Ynet, an Israeli news site. He described the Israeli strikes as “a moderate and very calculated escalation.”
Tuesday’s blast occurred when forces patrolling along the fence by the Druse village of Majdal Shams “identified suspicious movement” and got out of their vehicle, according to Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military. He said Israel viewed the Syrian Army as responsible for whatever happened across the border, adding that it was too early to say whether Hezbollah had also been involved in the most recent episode. Many Israelis are concerned that Israel — by its own actions or those of others — is being inexorably pulled toward a more serious confrontation with Hezbollah or Syrian forces.
After Hezbollah accused Israel of striking one of its positions near Lebanon’s border with Syria in late February and threatened to retaliate, Israeli forces identified two men it described as “Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists” trying to plant a bomb on the Syrian side of the border fence in the Golan Heights and fired at them. Last Friday, a large explosive device was detonated against an Israeli Army vehicle patrolling adjacent to the Israeli-Lebanese border and Israeli military officials said they suspected that Hezbollah was behind the attack. Then, Israel responded with tank and artillery fire against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.
Shlomo Brom, a retired general at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said in a recent interview that Israel was allowing itself to do more to stop advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah because Hezbollah and Syria were weakened by their embroilment in the Syrian civil war. But he said Israeli actions “could bring us to a point where we cross the line,” compelling Hezbollah to retaliate and risking further Israeli entanglement.
Alex Fishman, the military affairs analyst for the popular Yediot Aharonot newspaper, wrote in an article published on Wednesday, “The Syrians and Hezbollah have been dragging Israel into a war of attrition on the northern border at a timing and pace that they have dictated,” adding, “The Israeli security establishment has been dragged into this brawl with its eyes wide open.”