For the second day in a row, the IDF fired a  tank shell close to the Syrian military outpost near the Israeli border on the Golan Heights. The reason given for the warning shot was that the Syrian military was conducting construction in an effort to build an outpost that was not outlined in the cease-fire agreements. According to the IDF, yesterday’s tank fire took place for the same reason.

Two weeks ago, a Jihadi terror cell belonging to the Al Nusra Front conducted a terror attack aimed at the village of Hader, which neighbors Israel’s Majdal Shams on the Syrian side of the border. Nine people were killed and another 23 were injured in the attack. The IDF issued an uncharacteristic statement following the attack. “We are prepared to aid the Druze living in the area and prevent the conquest of the Syrian city of Hader.”

Chief of Staff for the IDF Gadi Eizenkot said in a statement last week that the IDF had spread tanks across the Hermon rise in an effort to mae good on their promise to protect the town. That same force fired at past a Syrian outpost that the Syrian military tried to reclaim. This outpost lies on the same route that the terrorists used to bring in the carbomb that carried out the attack.

Following the uncharacteristic statement, the IDF issued yet another statement explaining the reasoning for the first. “Over the course of the past six years, an internal war has raged in Syria. It has been Israel’s policy to not intervene in this war or support any side. Rather our policy is one to provide medical and humanitarian aid to the residents who live in the Syrian Golan in order to ease their suffering. We have not, do not, and will not support any side in this conflict nor to any terrorist group in the Golan Heights. Over the past few hours, there has been intense fighting taking place near the town of Hader – in spite of what lies you will hear from those who have a vested interest in the outcome. Israel will not take sides in the battle or support any terror group, but we will stand by the Druze who live on the Golan Heights.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)