Mortar Shell from Syria Strikes Israeli-occupied Golan

A mortar round from Syria exploded in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights plateau on Thursday, the military said.

"There was no damage or injuries and the soldiers conducted a sweep in the area of the blast," a military spokeswoman said.

She added that the blast was "apparently linked to the internal situation in Syria" in an indication the army viewed it as stray fire and not intentionally directed at Israel.

Later Thursday, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that a male Syrian who had reached the border was rushed to an Israeli hospital.

Yael Shavit, spokeswoman for the Ziv hospital in northern Galilee town of Safed, said the army brought in a 16-year-old male, suffering from gunshot wounds to the hip and thigh.

Shavit said another three Syrians were currently being treated at her hospital, noting Ziv has provided medical care for 20 wounded Syrians in the past few months, all suffering gunshot wounds.

The Golan has been tense since the beginning of the conflict in Syria more than two years ago, but so far there have only been minor flare-ups as Syrian small arms fire or mortar rounds hit the Israeli side, prompting an occasional Israeli response.

Israel, which is technically at war with Syria, seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the strategic plateau during the 1967 Six-Day War, which it later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.