Itongadol.- A 13-year-old boy was killed and two other people were injured in the Golan Heights Sunday in cross-border fire from inside Syria that hit a civilian vehicle carrying out routine maintenance work for the Defense Ministry.
IDF tanks immediately returned fire at Syrian army positions in response to what an IDF source said appeared to be a deliberate attack on the truck.
One of those injured in the attack was in serious condition, while the other suffered light injuries. The teenage boy killed in the attack, Muhammad Karaka from Arraba in the lower Galilee, had been accompanying his father, a contract worker who was carrying out work at the border for the Defense Ministry.
Following the attack, an army source said it found what appeared to be a hole in the frontier fence. Army sources said they did not yet know whether the attack took the form of a shell, or another type of weapon.
"We know that the attack was carried out from an area under the control of Syrian rebels, but we\’re not at all sure that this was a Syrian rebel attack," said a source.
"It seems this attack was the result of direct fire [on the truck]," the source said.
Shelling from the Syrian civil war has occasionally spilled over onto the Golan, including what Israel has said were deliberate attacks on its troops.
While the Syrian army has a presence in the Golan, some areas are controlled by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, including al-Qaida-inspired militants hostile to the Jewish state.
Israel says Hezbollah guerrillas from Lebanon are also operating, on Assad\’s behalf, on the Golan. Israeli officials have voiced concern that Israel will increasingly become a target during and after the Syrian conflict.
Last March, four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a roadside bombing along the Golan frontier. Israel responded to that incident by launching air strikes against Syrian military sites.