IDF tanks shell two Syrian army structures encroaching on truce line

In rare confirmation of cross-border strike, army says temporary buildings were a violation of the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

This picture taken from the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli Golan Heights shows IDF military vehicles deployed in the village while smoke billows from a Syrian position along the front after Israeli tanks shelled the area on September 21, 2023. (JALAA MAREY / AFP)
This picture taken from the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli Golan Heights shows IDF military vehicles deployed in the village while smoke billows from a Syrian position along the front after Israeli tanks shelled the area on September 21, 2023. (JALAA MAREY / AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces in a rare statement on Thursday said it carried out tank strikes against two structures in the Syrian Golan Heights that violated a 1974 disengagement agreement.

The IDF said the temporary structures — erected in the Mount Hermon area — were used by the Syrian Arab Army and were a violation of the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement signed in 1974 between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War.

“The strike was carried out after IDF soldiers identified the two structures in the area of the security zone yesterday,” the military said.

The IDF said the structures were “a clear violation” of the 1974 agreement, and it held “the Syrian regime responsible for all activities occurring within its territory and will not allow any attempts to violate Israeli sovereignty.”

In Syria, the pro-government Sham FM radio station said Israel’s military struck an area on the edge of the Golan Heights in the village of Hadar. It said there were no casualties.

A video published by the Israel Hayom daily showed the strikes.

In recent years, Israel has destroyed several Syrian positions built within the demilitarized zone between the countries in the Golan Heights.

Earlier Thursday, Syrian opposition media reported that an Israeli drone strike killed two people near the southern Syrian town of Beit Jinn, close to the Israeli border.

It was unclear if the two strikes were related.

As a rule, the IDF generally does not comment on specific strikes in Syria, though it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.

The Israeli military says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.

In the past, strikes on areas close to the Israeli border in the Golan Heights have targeted specific individuals suspected of plotting attacks against Israel or in the midst of carrying them out.

Israel has repeatedly accused the Syrian military of actively assisting the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in the area.

AP contributed to this report.

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