US bans employees from most of Golan Heights

United States government workers in Israel must obtain approval if they want to travel within a mile-and-a-half of the Lebanon border.

The State Department sent a security message on Wednesday to US citizens registered with the nation’s diplomatic missions in Israel.

It also included a ban on visiting most of the Golan Heights without permission.

The directive came as Israel remained on high alert on its northern frontier following an airstrike earlier this week, allegedly by Israel, which killed six Hezbollah members and six Iranian nationals, including a general, on the Syrian Golan Heights. Both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed retaliation against Israel for the strike.

Israel neither confirmed or denied its involvement, in line with its policy, but a senior Israeli official told Reuters that the Iranian general was not the target in the attack, indicating Jerusalem was responsible.

The message also reminded workers of the ban on traveling on public buses throughout Israel and the West Bank.

The reminder came on the same day of a stabbing attack on a Tel Aviv bus by a Palestinian man, who wounded a dozen Israelis, several of them seriously, in the rampage.