Israeli Airstrikes Target ISIS Militants

The Israeli military has killed at least four militants inside Syria whom it said were affiliated with the terror group ISIS, according to a statement Monday morning.An airstrike originating inside of Israel targeted a truck with a machine gun mounted on top and the four fighters inside of it, who were operating out of an abandoned United Nations building just on the other side of the Syria-Israel border.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there were “multiple attempts” to attack IDF forces on the border with Israel and that the airstrike was a response to these attacks.

"We are paying close attention to developments and continuing with determination to implement the policy that I establish: We will not tolerate even isolated fire and we will respond forcefully and attack our enemies when necessary before they succeed in attacking us. We will not permit radical Islam or any other hostile entity to open a front of terror against us on the Golan,” he said on Monday.

Israeli security an issue in Golan

The Israeli Defense Force’s Golani Brigade originally sent out a reconnaissance team outside of a security fence but inside of Israel’s territory in the Golan Heights. The team came under small arms fire and mortar attack, then retreated. The airstrike was a response to this encounter.This is the first major confrontation between Israeli forces and ISIS-affiliated groups in the Golan. The IDF has tentatively allowed several groups to be near the border with Israel, as long as they do not let their fighting include Israel in any way. Groups such as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Khalid ibn al-Walid Army have clashed with Syrian Army forces in the area in recent years. The IDF has, in the past, reacted to stray mortars and gunfire by striking Syrian Army posts.Israel holds Bashar al-Assad’s government responsible for all gunfire that lands in Israeli territory from Syria, regardless of where it originated from.