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Itongadol.- Less than a day after an exchange of fire on the Syrian border, the IDF struck Syria for a second time on Friday morning, killing four or five members of the Islamic Jihadist group responsible for a rocket attack on Northern Israel on Thursday, according to IDF sources.
"We orchestrated an airstrike on a car carrying four or five men identified as members of the cell responsible for the rocket shooting on Thursday in the North. We know at least four of them were killed," said an IDF official.
The airstrike was carried out 15 kilometers inside Syrian territory in the Golan Heights.
"The entire area is in the hands of the Syrian army. We have passed on a clear message saying that Syria is responsible for the attack," said a senior military source.
The Islamic Jihadist cell responsible for the attack is controlled by Iran," he added.
"I said it just this week- anyone who tries to harm us, we will harm them. And so we did," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The IDF killed the forces responsible for the rocket attacks and the Syrians who allowed it to happen. We have no intention to escalate the situation but our policy remains the same," he said.
"To those states that are rushing to embrace Iran, you should know that an Iranian commander supported and gave guidance to the group that fired on Israel," added Netanyahu.
According to reports on Syrian state TV, the Israeli air force carried out an attack on a vehicle in the Golan Heights near the Israeli border that killed five civilian residents of Quneitra.
Four rockets were fired from Syria into northern Israel on Thursday afternoon. Two of the enemy rockets struck open areas on the Golan Heights and two others hit the Upper Galilee far from the border with Syria. They were fired at Israel from the center of the Syrian-held portion of the Golan Heights, according to the IDF.
IDF forces returned artillery fire at 14 targets in Syria in response to the attack.
The IDF said Syria would suffer the consequences of rocket strikes on Israel’s civilians.
Syrian state television said Israeli jets attacked a base on Thursday night in the Quneitra area, near the Israeli-occupied section of the Golan region killing one and injuring seven.
Earlier on Thursday evening, Israel accused Iran and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad of deliberately orchestrating Thursday afternoon’s rocket attack along its northern border with Syria.
“We have credible information that the attack was carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Organization and was facilitated and directed by an Iranian operative Saeed Izaddhi, who heads the Palestinian unit in the IRGC QODS force [part of the Iranian National Guard],” Israel said in a message it delivered to the six world powers.
The message was authorized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sent out by the Foreign Ministry.
“This is another clear and blatant demonstration of Iran’s continued and unabating support and involvement in terrorist attacks against Israel and the region in general,” Israel said.
Dawoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, denied the group had fired on Israel from the Syrian Golan.