The Israeli military says it has carried out airstrikes on a number of military targets inside Syria, including the military headquarters, in response to a cross-border attack that left an Israeli teenager dead.

In a statement early Monday, the military said nine targets were struck and "direct hits were confirmed."

"Yesterday's attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel, and a direct continuation to recent attacks that occurred in the area," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. He said Israel "will not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel's sovereignty and will act in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel."

In the initial deadly incident, a civilian vehicle in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was targeted, killing a 14-year-old boy in the first deadly incident along the volatile area since the Syrian civil war erupted more than three years ago. Israel first retaliated with tank fire at Syrian government targets.

The Israeli military said two other people were wounded in Sunday's incident.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said it was "the most substantial incident" along the frontier with Syria since the beginning of the civil war. He said it was unclear whether the vehicle had been struck by a rocket, mortar shell or some other explosive device, but claimed the attack was clearly intentional.

"It was fired directly from east to west," he said, adding that it was a "direct hit" on the vehicle.

The vehicle was driving along a fence that Israel has built along the Syrian frontier, Lerner said. He described the vehicle as a water tanker, and said people on board were doing work for Israel's Defense Ministry at the time. "We have a hole in the fence, which indicates it could be a projectile," Lerner said.

He said Israeli tanks opened fire in response at Syrian government positions, but that it remained unclear whether the Syrian military or rebels had carried out the attack. Israel has said it holds Damascus responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory.

Later Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to the boy's father and sent his condolences. "Our enemies don't differentiate between Jews and non-Jews, adults and children," he told an international gathering of Jewish journalists.

Israel has not taken sides in the Syrian civil war. While closely watching the fighting, it has largely stayed out of the violence, though it has occasionally responded to fire that has landed on the Israeli side of the Golan.

In his address, Netanyahu said in conflicts like Syria, where al-Qaeda-inspired extremists are battling Iranian-backed Syrian troops, there is no good choice and it is best for Israel to sit back and let its enemies weaken each other. "This is a fault line between civilization and savagery," he said.

Father, friends and teachers say 13-year-old killed in blast on Golan Heights wanted to be doctor; 'I felt as if my car was flying,' says man wounded in incident.

"My boy died before my eyes," the father of Mohammed Karaka said of his 13-year-old son who was killed Sunday when the truck they were traveling in on the Golan Heights was hit by a blast.



The father, who is a subcontracted Defense Ministry employee driving a water truck for construction work on the border fence between Israel and Syria, sustained light-to-moderate wounds.

Three other people were wounded in the attack deadly attack that marked the first time an Israeli civilian was killed as a result of the Syrian civil war.



The boy was a high-school student who decided to join his father for work only a day after summer recess began.

Speaking to Ynet from his hospital bed at the Rivkah Ziv Medical Center at Safed, the father said "he was very happy when I agreed to take him with me today, and now this joy has turned into a tragedy."



The father spoke with great pride of his son: "He was gifted child who also spoke about wanting to be a doctor.



"I don't want to go back to work. I don't know how I will deal with this loss. I can only hope that something like this will never happens to any family, because no one can deal with this type of death," he said.

A school friend recalled the last day at school with Mohammed: "He said 'I'm supposed to go with my father and help him with his work.' That was the last sentence I heard him say. It was obvious he was excited about it."



One of Mohammad's teachers also spoke highly of the boy, saying "Mohammad was a great and sweet kid. Only on Thursday I men with him and he told me he was looking forward to resting during the summer break." The teacher said the school had canceled plan trip in wake of the boys untimely death.

Among the wounded was Shlomi Hazan, 32, from Beit Shean. He spoke with Ynet and recalled the event's details.



"I arrived at the scene to see the guys – my workers. I was sitting in my car and behind me was the truck with the father and son inside. Suddenly I felt as if the entire car was flying. Without losing my cool I took of my seatbelt and managed to get out of the car and make my way towards the bushes.

"When I looked back, I saw the water truck driver's son. It was hard. Then the bushes I was hiding in caught fire and I fled."

According to him this was the first time the driver brought his son with him to work, "he worked with us for a long time, it's really hard."



According to him there was no warning before the attack took place, "there was no alert or talk. Nothing. The IDF is always in the area we work in.

"In my opinion it was a Lau missile or a mortar or something like that," he said.



There have been contradicting reports regarding the source of the blasts with some claiming it was a mine or side-blast, and others, among them Syrian rebels, claiming it was a stray mortar or anti-tank missile fired by the Syrian regime currently amidst a heavy fighting with rebels over the coveted Quneitra crossing.



The IDF is still investigating the incident, but the growing assumption is that the blast was a result of either a mortar or anti-tank missile. After the initial blast took place, the IDF responded with artillery fire into Syrian territory.

Some three weeks ago, the IDF shelled into Syria in response to a mortar fired at Mount Hermon by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The IDF has also locked down the border with Syria at least twice in recent months, as Syrian rebels and government forces battled over a key village close to the Israeli frontier.

In March, four soldiers were wounded when explosive device detonated along Israel's border fence with Syria went off not far from the Druze village of Majdal Shams.

Israel has no business in the Golan Heights.

A nation of psychopathic 'warriors' who want a "Greater Israel" no matter any international law or morality.

Fuck them.

The kid who was killed was Muslim. Muslims killing Muslims

Zionists got balls all right. They got the balls to attack anyone they want to attack even without a shred of evidence the people the Zionist attack had anything to do with the attack they claim even happened.

Yes that bit is baited. Can you see it before I real you in??

Zionists got the balls to claim that 3 Zionists occupying Palestinian lands were kidnapped from IDF controlled areas of Zionists occupied Palestinian lands. Then the Zionists send out IDF aircraft to bomb the people the Zionists claim kidnapped the Zionist kids/

Well, if the IDF really thought that Hamas had kidnapped those kids, then why the helll would the IDF be bombing the Hamas, unless the IDF knew (KNEW without ANY question) that those kids were not held by Hamas???

The IDF knew that they would not be killing the 3 Zionist occupiers of Palestinian lands because the IDF knew that the 3 Zionist occupiers of Palestinians lands were not really kidnapped but were instead in IDF custody.