Israel Strikes Nine Syrian Military Targets In Response To Missile Attack That Killed Israeli Child

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck nine Syrian military targets in response to a Syrian missile attack that left a 14 year old Israeli boy dead and several Israeli men injured on Sunday. Israel’s response came early Monday morning and took place in the Golan Heights region.

The Israeli boy whom the Syrian military killed without provocation on Sunday was Muhammad Karaka from Arrabe in the Lower Galilee Region. According to a report in Israel National News, the men injured in the Syrian missile attack were civilian defense contractors. The Syrian military apparently targeted the unarmed truck with missiles. One of the contractors injured in the unprovoked Syrian missile attack was the father of the teenage boy killed by the Syrian military.

According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s strikes targeted Syrian firing positions and military command posts. According to the report, a representative of the IDF had this to say of Israel’s attacks on Syrian military positions:

“We identified accurate strikes on the targets. (Sunday’s cross-border Syrian missile strike was a) most serious provocation, which comes after a series of terror attacks in recent months on the IDF in the border region in general, and in this area in particular.”

Israel National News also quotes an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson:

“The shooting yesterday is a most serious act of provocation carried out as a continuation of a number of attacks in recent months against IDF forces across the border in general and in this region in particular. The IDF will act determinedly in any way and at any time it sees fit in order to protect the citizens of Israel.”

The Israeli Defense Force has indicated that the Syrian missile attack on Sunday appears to have pierced the barrier fence between Syria and Israel, presenting a compromised defensive position for Israel. Israel deployed tanks to counterattack after Syrian forces attacked – apparently deliberately – an unarmed Israeli truck.

The Syrian missile attacks were just the latest in an ongoing string of rocket attacks and border skirmishes initiated by the Syrian military and Syrian rebels against the people of Israel, though most of the attacks have been ineffective. When Sunday’s attack killed a young Israeli and injured others, Israel determined that counterattacks were necessary in order to push back the rapidly escalating violence and intrusion by the Syrians into Israel’s territory.

[Images Via Gil Eliyahu and Bing]