A series of powerful explosions was heard in the southwestern Syrian province of Quneitra, near the border with Israel, on Friday night.

Later on Friday night, the Israeli army announced that it had struck military targets in southern Syria in retaliation for mortar shelling into Israeli territory that had taken place earlier in Golan Heights, an area that the Israeli armed forces occupied during the Six Day War in 1967 and still continue to hold.

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“Attack helicopters (…) hit targets in southern Syria belonging to the Syrian armed forces, including “observation posts” and “intelligence gathering systems” at military bases, the Israeli army said in a statement.

According to the same source, the explosions took place around 23:00 yesterday (local time and Cyprus time).

Also read: Damascus | Two Syrian soldiers have been killed in Israeli air strikes

According to the Syrian news agency SANA, Israeli “missiles” hit three targets, as a result of which two members of the Syrian armed forces suffered “minor injuries” and a forest fire broke out.

No Israeli casualties were reported earlier in the day. One building and one car were damaged.

Tensions on the Syrian-Israeli border have been rising since Monday, when five pro-Iranian paramilitaries were killed in Israeli missile strikes on the Damascus border. Among them was a member of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shiite faction that is fighting in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Also read: Syrian Civil War | The timeline of the bloody conflict

Following the deaths of two Hezbollah members in Damascus last August, Saghed Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, said the group would retaliate if Israel killed other members of the group.

The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it was strengthening its forces on its northern border with Lebanon and Syria.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the war broke out in the country in 2011, against Hezbollah positions or convoys, forces close to Iran, and the Syrian armed forces. The Israeli government rarely confirms the operations of its armed forces in Syria, but it often says it will not allow Iran and its allies to turn Syrian territory into a bridgehead.

Source: CNA