Israel Fires Missile Into Syria, Claims ‘Direct Hit’

Claims Retaliation for Fire 'Toward' Israel

Israeli troops are claiming to have scored a “direct hit” in an attack on a target inside Syria today, after responding to what they claimed was gunfire “towards” Israel, that did no damage and caused no injuries.

Israeli DM Moshe Ya’alon insisted that Israel was determined not to allow “a routine of sporadic firing at our civilians or our forces,” though it is unclear if whatever firing was actually “at” anyone, and it certainly did hit anything.

What was “direct hit” in the Israeli attack is entirely unclear, though Defense Ministry officials claim that whatever they hit, it was the presumptive source of the previous shooting.

Israel occupied a portion of the Golan Heights in 1974, and the Syrian rebels have taking much of the Syrian-held remainder in the recent civil war. Israeli officials have maintained at every one of these cross-border incidents that they are unsure if the people shooting “toward” the border and getting hit with missiles are government troops or rebels.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.