Israel takes fire from Syria, Gaza; vows to ‘escalate’ if it continues

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By Sheera Frenkel — McClatchy Newspapers

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military engaged on two fronts Monday, exchanging fire across its northern border with Syria and its southern border with Gaza as its leaders warned that the military was prepared to “escalate on all fronts.”
An Israeli tank fired shells into Syria, scoring a “direct hit,” according to the military, on the site where mortar rounds had been launched into Israel that morning.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian rebels and government forces had exchanged fire in the village of Bir Ajam, about half a mile from the Israeli border. But it couldn’t confirm whether the outgoing mortar fire toward Israel had come from Syrian army tanks there. Israeli officials have maintained that the tank fire was a deliberate provocation by the Syrian military.
There have been at least seven cases in the last year of Syrian violence spilling over Israel’s...Continue reading...