The Israeli army on Monday said it targeted a group of four people who had planted explosives along the border fence with Syria on the Golan Heights.

Soldiers spotted the group near a frontier outpost overnight and, backed by air support, “fired simultaneously towards the squad of four terrorists, a hit was identified”, the military said.

No Israelis were wounded. An army spokesman said it was too soon to say if the squad belonged to any organization, but that Israel held “the Syrian regime accountable”.

There was no immediate comment from Syria.

Tensions have risen in recent weeks along the Israel-Syria frontier after a fighter of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah was killed in an apparent Israeli strike on the edge of Damascus.

Israel has since boosted its forces on its northern front, where it borders Lebanon and Syria.

The overnight encounter occurred at the same spot where until two years ago, Israel had operated a field hospital to treat Syrians who had been wounded in the Syrian civil war, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, told reporters.

The army had noticed “irregular activity” in that area for about a week and had a commando team waiting there in ambush, Conricus said.

A search of the area was being carried out.

Reuters

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