A projectile fired from Syria into Israel was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system on Saturday afternoon, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) said in a statement.
The apparently errant projectile was intercepted and destroyed with no harm to civilians or property.
The Iron Dome is an air defence system used by Israel to intercept and destroy short-range rockets, artillery shells and mortars fired from distances of up to 72km, to protect civilian areas in the path of such projectiles.
Military officials said the projectile was the result of fighting inside Syria and was not meant to target Israel.
On Thursday, Israeli security said that errant projectiles from Syria that have landed on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights over the past two weeks have been fired by Syrian opposition groups as well as by Syrian army forces.
Some of the errant fire has come from the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist group which recently rebranded itself as Jabhat Fath Al-Sham, according to the sources.
There was no indication presently that the mortar fire was intentional. Rather, it is seen as the unintended result of the ongoing civil war in the neighboring country and the struggle over territory, specifically areas in the Syrian Golan Heights between Hader and Quneitra which are parallel to the Israeli side, the sources said.
Israel routinely retaliates against stray mortar hits inside its territory by striking Syrian army targets, which it holds responsible for all spillover fire, regardless of the source.
However, the IDF also said this week, following another projectile strike, that it “will not hesitate to act against any opposition forces in Syria,” in what could be seen as a departure from recent policy.
The policy of striking Syrian army positions has led to claims in Damascus and elsewhere that the Israeli army is working to protect and even aid the rebel fighters. The IDF says it is not involved or taking sides in the Syrian fighting.
The most recent incident involving errant fire came on Wednesday evening when a mortar shell struck the northern Golan Heights, exploding in an open field near Israel’s border with Syria.
It was the sixth such incident this week and came as fighting between Assad regime forces and the numerous rebel groups in southern Syria escalated in recent weeks.
