IDF carries out airstrikes across southern Syria after two projectiles fired from 12 km inside northern neighbor; Houthi missile triggers sirens across central Israel; no injuries reported
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Jerusalem would mount a “full response” against the regime of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa after two rockets were fired from Syria at the Golan Heights for the first time in over a year, minutes before a Houthi missile triggered sirens across central Israel.
No injuries were reported from either attack. The IDF said it had responded to the attack from Syria with artillery fire on the source of the rockets, some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel.
The IDF also carried out a series of airstrikes throughout southern Syria that it said targeted weapons belonging to the regime.
“The Syrian regime is responsible for what is happening in Syria and will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory,” the IDF said in a statement.
Katz issued his own statement asserting that Israel views Sharaa himself as “directly responsible for every threat and [rocket] fire toward the State of Israel.”
“The full response will come soon,” said Katz, adding that Israel “will not allow a return to a pre-October 7 reality.”
The rockets from Syria triggered sirens in the Golan Heights communities of Hispin and Ramat Magshimim. Police later said officers located the site of the two rocket impacts in an open area near Ramat Magshimim.
The IDF said the rockets were launched from Tasil in south Syria, near an area where gunmen fired at Israeli troops in April.
The Syrian foreign ministry asserted that it “has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region” and was working to rein in armed, non-state actors in southern Syria.
The Syrian government claimed it had yet to confirm the rocket launches that targeted Israel, but it did condemn the Israeli counter-attack, saying it resulted in “heavy human and material losses” and violated Syria’s sovereignty “at a time when we are most in need of calm and peaceful solutions.”
“We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities in stopping these attacks, and to support efforts aimed at restoring security and stability to Syria and the region,” the Syrian foreign ministry statement said.
It was the first alert in the Golan since a drone alarm from Iraq sounded there in November, and the first the first rocket fire from Syria since May 5, 2024, seven months before a jihadi group led by Sharaa toppled the country’s Iran-backed President Bashar Al-Assad.
The United States, which previously placed a bounty on Sharaa’s head, has since embraced him and removed Assad-era sanctions on Syria. On Tuesday, Sky News Arabic reported Sharaa will speak at the coming UN General Assembly in September, which would make him the first Syrian leader to travel to the US in almost 60 years.
Israel has remained publicly leery despite reportedly seeking warmer ties with Sharaa’s administration. Following Assad’s ouster, Israel moved troops into the Syrian side of the two countries’ demilitarized buffer zone, and has carried out numerous strikes across Syria.
rael downs 3rd Houthi missile in as many days
Additionally on Tuesday evening, the IDF said it downed a missile fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis that triggered sirens in central Israel roughly 20 minutes after the attack from Syria. The sirens were preceded by an early warning to residents via a push notification on their phones. It was the third Houthi attack in as many days.
Sirens also sounded some three minutes later in the northern town of Nof HaGalil and other communities near Nazareth. The IDF said those sirens were caused by “fears of interceptor fragments” but were later confirmed to have been a “false identification,” meaning not a threat.
Possible fragments from either the Houthi or interceptor missiles landed in the central city of Modiin, police said, adding that officers were at the scene to remove the debris.
The Houthi missile stopped air traffic at Ben Gurion International Airport for some 25 minutes, in accordance with standard procedure.
The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre sparked the war in Gaza.
The Houthis held their fire when Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in January 2025. By that point, they had fired over 40 ballistic missiles and dozens of attack drones and cruise missiles at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July, prompting Israel’s first strike in Yemen.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 45 ballistic missiles and at least 10 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.
