Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on January 31 fighter jets from the Israeli Air Forces carried out strikes against Syrian military positions in the southern Syrian governorate of Daraa overnight in response to a rocket attack that targeted the occupied Golan Heights.
No injuries were reported by the IDF or Hebrew media after three rockets fired from Syria hit open areas in the southern Golan Heights late on January 30.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Israeli retaliatory airstrikes targeted a military position in Tell al-Jumou’ and another near the town of Nafa`ah. The London-based monitoring group didn’t report any material losses or casualties.
The rockets that targeted the Golan Heights were most likely launched by Palestinian fighters from the Hamas Movement or the Islamic Jihad as a protest to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
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, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas.
Rocket attacks from southern Syria against the Golan Heights also became a regular occurrence. In addition, the occupied region was targeted by suicide drones launched by Iranian-baccked armed factions from Iraq more than once.
In an attempt to de-escalate tensions between Syria and Israel, the Russian military established a series of observation posts in the governorate of al-Quneitra along the Golan front. Fighter jets from the Russian Aerospace Forces also began conducting patrols there.
