Dozens of Druze residents of the Israeli Golan Heights tore through a security fence along the Syrian frontier Friday, as fighting raged in a nearby Druze village on the Syrian side of the Golan.
According to army sources, dozens of Druze residents of the Golan broke through the security barrier separating the Israeli side of the Golan from the Syrian side. At least 10 residents ran through the breach into Syrian territory, towards the embattled Druze village of Hader.
Hader, a Druze village aligned with the Assad regime, has close ties with the Druze community in northern Israel. The village came under heavy attack Friday by forces of the Islamist Al Nusra Front, a radical Islamic rebel force which has struggled to gain a foothold in the Syrian side of the Golan for years.
IDF forces in the Golan pursued the residents who had crossed over into Syrian territory, returning them to the Israeli Golan.
The Israeli army condemned the breaching of the security fence, and called upon locals to refrain from approaching any security barriers along the border.
On Friday, a suicide car bomber from Al Nusra killed at least 9 residents of Hader and injured some 23 more.
Israel pledged to prevent the town’s capture by Al Nusra, a rare exception to the Jewish state’s policy of non-interference in Syria’s six-and-a-half year civil war.
One Druze resident of Israel was wounded Friday morning by stray gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.
The victim, a resident of Majdal Shams in the Israeli Golan Heights, was lightly wounded in the incident and was treated at the scene.