Iranian Forces Fire on Golan Heights; Residents Ordered to Take Cover. No Injuries Reported.
Jerusalem, 9 May, 2018 (TPS) -- Breaking News: Four Code Red sirens sounded in the Golan Heights at around midnight. There have been no reports of projectiles hitting Israeli territory.
00:58 The Golan Heights Regional Council said that projectiles have been fired at the Israeli side of the Heights. Residents have been instructed to take cover in bomb shelters until further notice.
1:02 The Upper Galilee Regional Council has alerted residents that Code Red alarms have sounded in the Golan Heights, but said that the situation in the Galilee was “normal.” The notice alerted residents that they would hear shooting from IDF troops “soon.”
1:04 The IDF Spokesman’s Unit said Iran’s Quds Force had fired about 20 projectiles at Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. Iron Dome batteries downed several missiles; no injuries have been reported.
According to unconfirmed reports in the Arab media IDF artillery troops fired at Syrian positions adjacent to the town of Quneitra.
The incident took place hours after senior IDF officers, including Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, head of the IDF Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yoel Sitrik, head of the IDF Home Front Command Maj. Gen. Tamir Yada’i and the commander of the Habashan Battalion, Brig. Gen. Amit Fisher, conducted a tour of the northern region to review troop readiness in light of rising tensions with Iran.
The alarms also followed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s day-long meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Netanyahu presented Putin with previously secret intelligence detailing Iran’s nuclear program and repeated his long-standing assertion that Israel would do what it needed to defend itself against an Iranian attack launched from Syria.
Wednesday, the military ordered civilian authorities in the Golan region to unlock municipal bomb shelters following US President Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he would pull the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
*This is a developing story. TPS will provide additional details as they become available.