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Israel army says shelling Syria after projectiles launched / Photo: © AFP
Israel army says shelling Syria after projectiles launched
The Israeli military said it was shelling targets in Syria on Tuesday in response to a pair of projectile launches, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying he held Syria's leader "directly responsible".
Syria's foreign affairs ministry denied firing the projectiles and said the country "has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region".
Israeli media said Tuesday's strikes were the first fired from Syria into Israeli territory since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
There were no reports of casualties or damage on the Israeli side due to the projectiles, which the military said triggered air raid sirens in parts of the southern Golan Heights, a territory Israel conquered from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said in a statement released by his office that "we view the president of Syria as directly responsible for any threat or fire directed at the State of Israel".
Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, led the Islamist group that spearheaded the offensive that led to Assad's toppling.
The Israeli military said "two projectiles were identified crossing from Syria into Israeli territory, and fell in open areas", adding in a subsequent statement that its "artillery struck in southern Syria" following the launches.
Syria's official news agency SANA reported shelling "targeting the Yarmuk Basin, in the west of Daraa" province.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombardments had hit farmland in the province, without reporting casualties.
"Violent explosions shook southern Syria, notably the town of Quneitra and the Daraa region, following Israeli aerial strikes" overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, the monitor said in a statement.
- 'Never a threat' -
Syria condemned the Israeli shelling as a "blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty" that "aggravates tensions in the region".
"Syria has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region," the foreign ministry said in a statement published by SANA.
The ministry denied responsibility for the strikes, but said "numerous parties are trying to destabilise the region to serve their own interests."
"The absolute priority in southern Syria is to extend the authority of the state and put an end to the presence of weapons outside the framework of official institutions," it added.
Following Assad's overthrow, Israel moved its forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights, and has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.
Israel says the strikes aim to stop advanced weapons from reaching Syria's new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.
Israel's military said on Sunday that its troops were continuing "defensive operations in southern Syria" to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure and protect the residents of the Golan Heights".
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948.
US President Donald Trump announced last month the lifting of sanctions on Syria and voiced hope that it would normalise relations with Israel, but experts say that prospect is far from becoming a reality.
N. Lebedew--BTZ
