Israeli soldiers retaliate after unit comes under fire from Syria

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli soldiers patrolling in the southern Golan Heights came under fire from Syria.

The Israel Defense Forces unit returned fire after Monday’s incident and said that they hit a Syrian soldier, according to the IDF.

It is unclear if the unit was targeted or if the gunfire was spillover from the nearly three-year-long civil war in Syria.

Earlier on Monday morning, a Syrian mortar shell landed in the Golan village of Majdal Shams. The explosive landed close to a residential home. The village is home to nearly 10,000 Druze Arabs.

Dozens of mortar shells have landed on Israel’s side of the Golan since the start of the Syrian civil war in March 2011. Israel has filed complaints with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force stationed on the Golan.