Three rockets were fired from Syria towards the Golan Heights this evening, one of which crossed into Israeli-controlled territory and landed in open ground, the Israeli military said, without giving details.
Earlier it said a rocket alert was sounded in the area.
On Thursday, a barrage of rockets was fired towards Israel from southern Lebanon, drawing cross-border strikes from Israel on sites linked to the Islamist movement Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza.
Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area in 1981, a move not recognised by most of the international community.
Earlier today, Israel began calling upon police and army reservists after separate attacks killed three people in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank.
Despite international appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police clashed with Palestinians inside Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday.
An Italian was killed and seven other tourists wounded when a man drove a car into pedestrians on the Tel Aviv seafront yesterday evening and flipped over before being shot dead, police and emergency services said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni named the dead man as 36-year-old Alessandro Parini while police identified the driver as a 45-year-old from the Arab town of Kfar Kassem in central Israel.
“The terrorist was neutralised,” a spokesperson said.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, said the attack was a “natural and legitimate response” to Israel’s “aggression” in the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Yesterday, two British-Israeli sisters aged 16 and 20 were killed, and their mother seriously wounded when their car was fired on in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.
Their father witnessed the incident from a separate car following behind, local officials said.
The family lived in the Efrat settlement, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, according to the settlement’s mayor Oded Revivi.
The army said it had launched a manhunt for the perpetrators while the British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said UK officials were in touch with the hospital and will offer support.
Following the Tel Aviv attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the police to “mobilise all reserve border police units” and directed the army to “mobilise additional forces”, his office said.
Police said four reserve battalions of border police would be deployed in city centres from tomorrow, in addition to units already deployed in the Jerusalem region and in the central city of Lod, which has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops came under fire in a drive-by shooting in the northern town of Yabad overnight, the army said today.
One hit was identified among the assailants, an army statement said.
Cross-border strikes
Yesterday’s attacks came after Israel launched air strikes and an artillery bombardment before dawn in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
It was the heaviest rocket fire from Lebanon since Israel fought a 34-day war with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in 2006 and the first time Israel has confirmed an attack on Lebanese territory since April 2022.
Israel “struck targets, including terror infrastructures, belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in southern Lebanon”, the army said.
The Lebanese army said it had found and dismantled a multiple rocket launcher in an olive grove in the Marjayoun area near the border, still loaded with six primed rockets.
In Gaza, the Israeli army said it had hit two tunnels and “two weapon manufacturing sites” in response to the “security violations of Hamas”.
It said air defences had intercepted 25 rockets from Lebanon on Thursday, while five had hit Israeli territory.
Israel “will not allow the Hamas terrorist organisation to operate from within Lebanon”, it said.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which patrols the area along the border, urged restraint, noting: “Both sides have said they do not want a war.”
Yesterday evening the army said it had shot down a drone that had entered Israel’s airspace from Lebanon.
Push for de-escalation from western countries
The EU, UK and US condemned the attacks and called for de-escalation.
“The EU expresses its total condemnation of these acts of violence,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
“We urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint.”
The UK Foreign Office released a statement saying it was “saddened” to hear about the deaths of the two British-Israelis and the “serious injuries sustained by a third individual”.
“The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions,” it added.
The US State Department said “the targeting of innocent civilians of any nationality is unconscionable.”
The country also voiced support for Israel over Lebanon, without explicitly backing the Jewish state’s strikes on its northern neighbor in response to the rocket fire by militants.
“As we urge de-escalation on all sides,” another State Department spokesperson said.
“The use of Lebanon as a launchpad for rocket attacks against Israel only puts Lebanon at risk and increases the potential for further conflict”.
“Nobody wants an escalation right now,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
“Quiet will be answered with quiet, at this stage I think, at least in the coming hours.”
One official with a Palestinian militant group told Reuters they were ready to keep the calm should Israel do the same, with the group having “made its point”.
A Qatari official said Qatar was helping international efforts to de-escalate the situation.
Even before the flare-up of the past few days, the West Bank has seen a surge of confrontations in the past several months, with frequent military raids and escalating settler violence amid a spate of attacks by Palestinians.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 18 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks in Israel, around Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
In the same period, Israeli forces have killed more than 80 Palestinians, most of them fighters in militant groups but some of them civilians.
Additional reporting by PA
Israel says missile alert sounded in Golan Heights
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