Israel-Syria border
Photo: Reuters
IDF forces shoot Syrian trying to cut border fence
Suspect refuses to heed troops' calls to stop, sustains injury in knee and evacuated to Syrian hospital. IDF official lauds soldiers' conduct
An IDF force opened fire on Saturday at a Syrian citizen who approached the Israel-Syria border and attempted to cut the fence. The man was injured in the incident and evacuated to a Syrian hospital.
IDF forces on routine activity in the area identified a man approaching the Israeli border. They ordered him to stop and when he failed to heed their calls, they opened fire in his direction.
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The Northern Command launched a probe into the incident.
According to an initial investigation, the incident occurred at 3:20pm, after soldiers from the 401 brigade spotted the suspect approaching the border fence in the southern Golan Heights.
IDF troops at Syria-Israel border (Photo: Yoav Zitun)
After the suspect failed to heed to the soldiers' calls, they fired warning shots in the air and eventually fired a single shot toward his lower body. The suspect was injured in his knee, and evacuated by Syrian citizens.
An IDF official lauded the force's conduct during the event, saying that "many suspicious activities near the fence have been recorded in recent days, of people posing as Shepherds.
"As far as we are concerned any person who tries to approach the fence is not doing it for peaceful reasons: He is either trying to collect intelligence on our troops, planning a terror attack, or he is trying to infiltrate into Israel and carry out an attack in one of the communities near the border. We will respond with an iron fist against any such attempt," the official noted.
In June, a Syrian man was detained near the border after touching the fence. He was transferred for investigation with security forces.
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