The IDF thwarted a terrorist attack in the Golan Heights on Sunday, scoring a direct hit on four terrorists as they were planting a bomb along Israel’s northern border, the IDF stated after midnight on Sunday.

The four terrorists, who were all killed in the strike, crossed into Israel from Syria on Sunday night. and were observed trying to plant explosives inside an unmanned IDF post.

IDF soldiers and aircraft immediately opened fire and killed all four terrorists, IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said on Monday morning. Some of the terrorists were armed.

No Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident.

This is the moment when four terrorists attempted to plant explosives near the security fence between #Israel and #Syria last night…

…and the moment we stopped them.

We will continue to defend Israel's borders from all enemy threats. pic.twitter.com/bQPGPiJFlg

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 3, 2020

Zilberman added that it is unknown if the cell belonged to Hezbollah or another terrorist organization. “We don’t know who sent them,” he said. “There are a lot of players in Syria, some backed by Iran and some not. We can’t currently say that this was a Hezbollah attack but we can’t rule it out either.”

Zilberman added that Israel holds Syria responsible for the incident, regardless of the origin of the attack and may retaliate against Syria for the incident.

The terrorists first approached the border area about 8 p.m., crossing the Israeli/Syrian border three hours later.

“They crossed the ‘alpha line’ [line marking the border] so they were totally within Israeli territory,” Zilberman said.

They were monitored by IDF soldiers through security cameras and when the terrorists approached the security fence, a group of soldiers from the elite Maglan commando unit opened fire with machine guns while an IDF aircraft simultaneously zoomed-in from overhead and fired at the terrorists.

Zilberman added that surveillance soldiers have noticed several cases of “innocent shepherds” approaching the border in recent days, believed to actually be reconnaissance operations, and Maglan combat soldiers have been lying in wait in case of an attack.

In light of the heightened tensions on the northern border since the IDF thwarted an attempted Hezbollah infiltration attempt last Monday, the IDF has reinforced the Northern Command with infantry battalions, as well as combat intelligence units, specials forces units, Iron Dome batteries and precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles.

The IDF will remain on high alert by the northern border for threats of further attacks by terrorist organizations.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)