JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said it struck targets in Syria Sunday after rare rocket fire from its northeastern neighbor as tensions simmered at a volatile Jerusalem shrine important to both Jewish and Muslim worshippers.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that fighter jets had hit targets, including “military radars systems and artillery posts,” and “a military compound of the Fourth Division of the Syrian Armed Forces.” This followed strikes on rocket launchers that had fired toward Israeli territory, the statement said.
In separate tweets, the IDF said six rockets were launched from Syria toward Israel in two separate batches and three had been intercepted.
One of the rockets landed in the southern Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF said. The area borders Syria, which considers the territory as its own. Seized by Israel from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, it has been annexed since 1981. It is considered an occupied territory under international law.
No damage or casualties were reported in Israeli territory, and it was unclear if there were casualties in Syria.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, later tweeted that he had ordered that the crossing from Gaza be closed “until the end of the Jewish Passover holiday,” which concludes Wednesday. “IDF forces will increase the activity of the Israel Police wherever necessary,” he said.
His comments came after Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV quoted Al-Quds Brigade, a militia different from the larger Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing with a similar name, as saying it fired the rockets to retaliate for the police raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to the Associated Press. NBC News was unable to independently verify this.
The strikes on the Christian holy day of Easter came hours before thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, for a mass priestly benediction prayer service for the…
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