Multiple news outlets are reporting that Israeli military vehicles have occupied the Golan Heights after the region was hit by gunfire coming from neighboring Syria.
No injuries have been reported.
"A military vehicle traveling in the Golan was hit by gunfire from Syria. Apparently they were stray bullets, and there were no injuries", a military spokesman told AFP.
The Israeli army is on high alert. Since fighting has inched closer to Israel, Benny Gantz — the chief of Israel's armed forces — stated that his country could be drawn into the Syrian civil war if fighting between the rebels and regime forces moved close enough to Israel. Israel captured the strategically important Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-day war of 1967. Today, the region is a demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and Israel.
Earlier today, Al Arabiya reported that three Syrian tanks entered a demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights. Al Arabiya also reports that Israel has lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations.
An official with the U.N. body supervising the zone could not immediately confirm the entry of the tanks.
If the report is true, it would be in violation of the disengagement accord between Syria and Israel agreed upon in 1974. It would be the first such violation in the zone since the agreement was made.
The Israeli Defense Force is stressing that it is highly unlikely that the military vehicle was the target, according to the Israeli website Ynet. Some posit that this relatively low-key response — turning to the U.N. — means Israel does not see the situation as an imminently dangerous.
In October, the conflict in Syria spilled over into Turkey and led to the deaths of multiple Turkish citizens, prompting a military retaliation by Turkish forces.
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