Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter said Israel needs "nerves of steel" after three Syrian mortar shells fell inside Israel territory on Thursday.
One of the shells landed between two homes in the Eloni Habashan moshav, but did not explode. No injuries or damage were reported.
Dichter stated: "Israel now requires nerves of steel," adding that there is nowhere for Israel to respond to, likely a reference to the chaos created by civil war in Syria.
Such events, he continued, "require a level-headed response from Israeli authorities."
Defense officials said they don\’t believe the mortars were intentionally fired at Israel, but rather were errant shells that strayed from internal fighting in Syria.
Gunfire from Syria wounds civilians in Turkey
Meanwhile, two civilians in Turkey\’s Hatay province were wounded by gunfire from Syria on Thursday, a Turkish official said.
The two Turkish citizens in the border town of Ceylanpinar were struck by stray bullets fired from the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain just across the border from where Syrian rebels are fighting government forces.
One woman and one young man were wounded, the official said.
Turkish state-run Anatolian news agency said both casualties had been taken to hospital and that Turkish security forces had increased their presence along that stretch of the border.
Turkey has been bolstering security along its 910-km (560-mile) border with Syria and has been responding in kind to gunfire and mortar shells hitting its territory.
On Saturday, three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone on the Golan Heights, and remained there for several hours into the evening.
The tanks, which were involved in heavy clashes with Syrian rebels, encroached the decades-old cease-fire agreement between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Israel lodged a complaint with the UN over the ceasefire violation. The defense establishment has concluded, however, that the movement of tanks was linked to the Syrian civil war, and not intended as an act of aggression against Israel.
Nevertheless, the IDF raised its alert level in the Golan Heights region.
In October, the IDF evacuated tourists from the top of Mount Hermon after sighting dozens of Syrians – many of them with guns – in civilian clothing approaching the border.
The suspects, who may have been rebels, did not infiltrate the border, and stopped their approach to the fence some 500 meters away from the international boundary.