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Syrian rebel groups, including the Al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, on Wednesday took over the Syrian border crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for human rights said.
“Al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups took the Quneitra crossing, and heavy fighting with the Syrian army is continuing in the surrounding area”, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based monitoring group, said.
Rahman also said that at least 20 soldiers and 4 rebels were killed in the fighting for control of the crossing, which had begun on Wednesday. The gunfire strayed across the border region into the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan, where an Israeli officer was injured.
Six mortar shells had crashed into the occupied part of Golan Heights within hours, the Israeli army said, adding that it fired back.
“In response to the errant fire from the internal fighting in Syria, which hit Israel earlier today and injured an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) officer, the IDF just targeted two Syrian army positions in the Syrian Golan Heights. Hits were confirmed”, the Israeli army said in a statement. Israel is technically still at war with Syria.
Israel had seized 1,200 square kilometers of the Golan Heights in the midst of the Six-Day War in 1967, later annexing it in a move which has not been recognized by the international community.
Ever since the Syrian conflict flared up in 2011, the Syrian plateau has been very tense, with an increasing number of, mostly stray, projectiles hitting the Israeli side – the Israeli army has on occasion responded with an armed response.
Earlier in June, an Israeli teen was killed in a pointed cross-border attack – Israel responded by sending warplanes to attack Syrian military positions and headquarters. The Quneitra crossing had briefly fallen to rebel forces in June last year, before it was recaptured by the Syrian army.