Israel strikes Syria hours after missiles launched towards occupied Golan Heights
Israeli air strikes targeted southern Syria on Wednesday morning, just hours after two missiles were launched towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The missiles were reportedly fired from the town of Tasil in Syria's Daraa Governorate - an area where Israel conducted military operations in April as part of its ongoing incursions into Syrian territory.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is named after the late commander of Hamas' armed wing.
"From the heart of occupied Palestine, we announce the establishment of the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades, in loyalty to the pure blood shed and as a continuation of the resistance path," the group said in a statement.
"We are a generation born under bombardment and raised to the sound of guns. We will not accept a life of humiliation or subjugation. It is either a life that pleases our friends or a death that angers our enemies.
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"We will be a sword hanging over your necks. Wherever you are, you will find us there, fighting you with everything we have."
The statement described the group as "neither a party nor an organisation," but rather "a free revolutionary resistance movement, present in every street, camp, and alley - echoing every cry from beneath the rubble."
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the authenticity of the statement or the accuracy of its claims.
'We will not cease until the shelling of the vulnerable in the Gaza Strip stops'
- Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades statement
A source from the group told Al Jazeera that the missiles launched from Syria, the first such incident since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, was in response to "the massacres in Gaza".
"We will not cease until the shelling of the vulnerable in the Gaza Strip stops," the source said.
Syria's Foreign Affairs Media Office denied any official involvement in the missile launch. In a statement to Al Ekhbariyah TV, it said there was "no accurate information" about attacks and warned that "several parties are seeking to destabilise the region to serve their own interests."
"Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region,'"the statement said. "The priority in southern Syria is to restore full state authority and prevent the presence of unauthorised weapons, in order to ensure the safety and stability of all citizens."
The office also strongly condemned Israel's retaliatory strikes on villages and towns in the Daraa region, calling them a violation of Syrian sovereignty and a dangerous escalation of tensions.
Israel blames Sharaa
Israel responded to the missiles by launching air strikes on southern Syria for the first time in nearly a month, targeting what it said were government-held weapons sites.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was "directly responsible for any threat or fire directed at the State of Israel".
The Israeli military warned that the new Syrian government "will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory."
Translation: Watch the moment of the violent Israeli bombing of areas in the northern and eastern countryside of Daraa
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported strikes near the city of Quneitra and across the Daraa countryside.
Ahmed al-Sharaa confirms Syria and Israel in indirect deconfliction talks Read More »
The Syrian foreign ministry said: "We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities in stopping these attacks, and to support efforts aimed at restoring security and stability to Syria and the region."
Since Assad's removal in December, Israel has sent troops to occupy a swath of southwestern Syria and conducted regular bombing campaigns.
Last month, Israeli fighter jets struck an area near Sharaa's presidential palace.
Israeli troops currently occupy a UN-patrolled buffer zone along the 1974 armistice line through the Golan Heights, although they have also pushed deeper into Syrian territory.
Last month, Sharaa said that his government was holding "indirect talks" with Israel to calm tensions between the two countries.
The 1974 agreement sought to limit border tensions between Syria and Israel after the 1967 War and was negotiated by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
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