JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army said it thwarted an attack on the Syrian border by four infiltrators who planted explosives.
Israeli soldiers on the ground and in the air simultaneously fired on and hit the men, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The IDF had tracked the group on Sunday night. The explosives they placed along the border fence were likely meant to be detonated as an Israeli patrol went by.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hedi Zilberman, also said that in recent days, the military has identified “a number of suspicious approaches to the fence, disguised as shepherds.”
It is not known what terror group was responsible for the attempted attack.
“The Syrian regime is responsible for any action taken from its territory, and therefore the State of Israel considers it responsible for this incident,” Zilberman said.
Also on Sunday evening, a rocket fired from Gaza was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. The rocket was launched toward the southern Israeli city of Sderot as dozens of cars gathered for the inaugural showing of a movie at the city’s new drive-in theater, which was established due to coronavirus restrictions.
Fragments from the interceptor missile landed on a car parked on a city street, breaking its back windshield.
In the early hours of Monday morning, the Israeli military retaliated, launching airstrikes on Hamas targets in the central and southern Gaza, including a cement factory used to build tunnels between Gaza and Israel, and what the military described as “underground infrastructure.”
It was the first rocket fired at Israel from Gaza in about a month.
