Tank fire (archive)
Tank fire (archive)Flash 90

Israeli tank units in the Golan Heights fired a warning shot at a Syrian army position inside a no-man’s land along the Israeli-Syrian frontier Sunday evening.

The Syrian position was illegally occupied inside the slender buffer zone which separates the Israeli and Syrian-held portions of the Golan Heights. The buffer zone was created as part of the cease-fire agreement which ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

In 1974, the two powers signed the Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, creating a narrow slice of neutral territory where both sides were prohibited to station military forces. A United Nations force, the UN Disengagement Observer Force, was charged with monitoring the buffer zone.

Following the illegal establishment of the Syrian foothold in the buffer zone, an IDF tank unit in the Golan fired at the Syrian position to deter further provocations by the Syrian government.

It is unclear if any damage or casualties resulted from the IDF tank fire.

“In the last few hours,” and IDF spokesperson said, “the Syrian Armed Forces violated the 1974 ceasefire by strengthening a military post in the demilitarized zone between Syria & Israel. In response, an IDF tank fired a warning shot towards the area.”