TEL-AVIV, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - Israeli troops were ordered to make an “immediate and harsh” response to any shelling from the Syrian territory, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday.
On Sunday Israeli military fired the first shots at Syrian territory since 1973 in retaliation for a stray mortar shell that hit an Israeli army post on Golan Heights.
“After a mortar shell exploded at an army base, the chief of the general staff ordered to open response fire at Syrian artillery positions. This should come as a signal to Syrians that we would not tolerate shelling at our territory,” Barak told a conference in Tel-Aviv.
According to local media reports, the mortar round was fired in clashes between Syrian pro-government troops and opposition forces and landed on the Israeli territory by accident.
“The armed forces were ordered to prevent the violence from spilling to our territory. Any future shelling will provoke and immediate and harsh reaction,” the defense minister said.
Israel and Syria remained at peace since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, a brief conflict in which the Israeli forces defeated an Arab coalition led jointly by Syria and Egypt. Israel is controlling the strategically positioned Golan Heights since the previous Arab-Israeli war of 1967, though Damascus never acknowledged the loss of this territory.
