According to statements from the Israeli military (IDF) and media, rockets were fired from Syria at Israel on Tuesday, for the first time in a year.
“A group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claims to have fired two Soviet-made Grad missiles at the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights,” Al Jazeera reports, citing an unidentified extremist group.
The rockets landed in open fields in the occupied Golan Heights, and no damage or casualties were reported, but Israel quickly announced it would respond militarily to the attempted attack.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel holds Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaad “directly responsible for every threat and [missile] fire directed against the State of Israel” and that “a full response will come soon.”
The group’s name and logo refer to slain Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, which is why Katz’s statement said he would not allow a “return to October 7.”
“We are a generation born under bombs and raised to the sound of rifles, who will not accept living in humiliation,” Katz’s statement said.
The Israeli military said it had recently attacked southern Syria with artillery fire after rocket fire from Syria as part of an initial response. But a spokesman for the Syrian extremist group said “our operations will not end until the bombing of the oppressed people of Gaza ends.”
Israel has already bombed Syria hundreds of times since Assad’s overthrow on December 8, ostensibly to ensure that the Syrian Arab Army is left with no high-end equipment.
As for Syrian leader Sharaa (Jolan), interestingly, just a few days ago he signaled that he was ready to make peace with Israel: “We have common enemies, cooperation is possible,” he said about this.
“I want to be clear,” al-Sharaa said of Israel. “The era of endless mutual bombing must end. No country can prosper if its skies are filled with fear. The reality is that we have common enemies and we can play an important role in regional security.”
Video purportedly showing rocket fire from Syria on Tuesday:
Of course, Israel had been bombing Assad’s Syria on a weekly basis before the regime change events of last December, and at the time it was claimed that Iranian forces and resources were being targeted.
For decades, Syria had the most feared Russian-supplied air defense systems in the entire region, but Syria’s current situation is such that its skies are completely undefended and at the mercy of Israel, the Pentagon, and Turkey.
