The IDF forces and aircraft fired in parallel at the four-man terror cell. All four were killed.
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
IDF Special Forces operating on the border with Syria identified and eliminated a four-man terror cell that was planting explosives near the border’s security fence.
The IDF stated that an elite unit that was observing the border in the southern Golan Heights area, near a military post, identified a squad of several terrorists placing explosives near the border fence.
The IDF forces and aircraft fired in parallel at the squad, some of whom were carrying weapons. All four were killed.
There were no Israeli casualties.
This is the moment when four terrorists attempted to plant explosives near the security fence between #Israel and #Syria last night…
…and the moment we stopped them.
We will continue to defend Israel’s borders from all enemy threats. pic.twitter.com/bQPGPiJFlg
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 3, 2020
The incident occurred within Israeli sovereign territory at a site that once served as an IDF field hospital treating Syrian refugees.
The Hezbollah terror organization, which is the primary suspect in the attack, has remained silent. The IDF said that after dismantling the scene later in the day it will have a better idea about who was behind the attack.
The IDF stated that the Northern Command forces “are on high alert for any scenario” and “considers the Syrian regime responsible for any action taken in its territory and will not allow any violation of the sovereignty of the State of Israel.”
The IDF in March 2019 announced that it had exposed a clandestine Hezbollah unit that was operating in southern Syria in the area near the border with Israel and where the attacks occurred.
The Hezbollah unit’s objective is to establish another front against Israel from the Golan Heights, in addition to Hezbollah’s threat from Lebanon.
The IDF published classified information about the “Golan File,” the name for the unit whose purpose is to establish infrastructure and act against Israel at a time of deterioration.
IDF forces deployed along Israel’s northern border remained on high alert Monday after thwarting an attack by the Hezbollah terror organization earlier this month and following threats by the group that more was to come.
The terror group carried out the attack on Har Dov after it officially announced the death of one of its men killed in an attack attributed to Israel on Iranian targets in Syria.
Hezbollah has previously threatened to respond to any death of its men killed by Israel, in Lebanon or Syria. This official recognition of the death of one of their men would require a response.
However, Hezbollah claimed after the attack on Har Dov that its operatives were not involved in the incident and that Israel unilaterally fired on Lebanon.
The “Zionists should await the punishment for their crimes” of killing Mohsen in Syria, and damage caused to a building during Monday’s fighting by IDF artillery “will not remain unanswered.”
The IDF has since significantly bםםsted its deployment on the border with Lebanon, and reports indicate that the last time it was at this level of preparedness was during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.