Israeli military says killed four people at Syria border

The Israeli military says it killed four men near the border between the occupied Palestinian territories and Syria, claiming that they were planting explosives.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Monday that the men "were inside Israeli territory but beyond the fence" separating the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights and the Syrian part of the territory.

He added that an Israeli commando unit, backed by airstrikes, fired simultaneously towards the men after 11 pm Sunday (2000 GMT).

"Our estimate is that all four were killed," Conricus said in the telephone briefing. According to the military, no Israeli casualties were reported.

There was no confirmation of the Israeli claim by any other party. The Israeli military did not link the men to any organization.

Israel has placed its forces near the border with Lebanon and Syria on high alert after Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement announced the death of one of its members in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus on July 20 and promised retaliation.

Last week, Israeli and Western media outlets claimed that Israel's forces had thwarted an effort by Hezbollah fighters to infiltrate into the occupied territories through Shebaa farms along Lebanon’s southern border.

Last Monday, Hezbollah dismissed the claim about border clashes as fake, saying it was aimed to boost the morale of Israeli forces by fabricating fictitious victories.

The area of the Sunday incident was the same spot where two years ago, Israel had operated a field hospital to treat Takfiri militants wreaking havoc in Syria.

"We spotted irregular night-time activity in this specific location for the past week and we had a commando unit deployed in the area," Conricus said.

The occupying regime has been providing medical treatment to extremist elements wounded during fighting in Syria.

Tel Aviv frequently attacks military targets inside Syria in what is considered as an attempt to prop up Takfiri terrorist outfits that have been suffering heavy defeats against Syrian government forces.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria after the 1967 Six-Day War and later occupied it in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.