A Syrian mortar fell in the northern Golan Heights, lighting injuring a man in a northern Kibbutz on Wednesday. MADA evacuated a lightly injured person who was hurt by the projectile, suffering a cut to his neck.
Earlier on Wednesday, an IDF officer was lightly-to-moderately wounded Wednesday by errant gun fire emanating from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, where rebels and forces loyal to the Damascus regime are embroiled in a civil war.
The IDF responded to the cross-border fire with artillery fire, directed at a Syrian army post. The military stated that "a direct hit on the target was identified. "We see the Syrian Army as responsible for all fire into Israel," an army spokesman said. There were no immediate reports of injuries on the Syrian side.
The wounded Israeli officer was airlifted to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for medical treatment.
Between 150 to 200 rebels are engaging around 100 Assad regime soldiers in Quneitra. The rebels, who include Jabhat Al-Nusra and severa other organizations, have taken the Quneitra Crossing, but fighting continues in the town of Quneitra.
Security sources who are observing the situation said it is likely that fighting will continue, and that the Syrian army may now call for reinforcements.
The sources said the IDF is not a party to the fighting, describing the war an "an internal Syrian conflict," and that the IDF's only involvement is based on providing humanitarian aid to injured Syrian civilians, as Israel has done for the past two years.
Earlier Wednesday, the IDF instructed farmers and civilians to stay away from the border with Syria on the Golan Heights after intense fighting flared between the Syrian army and rebels in the Quneitra crossing region.
Explosions from the fighting in Syria were audible in the Israeli Golan Heights. The IDF said that three errant mortar shells from the fighting fell in Israeli territory, damaging a pair of vehicles.
Fighting between Assad and rebels trying to seize the crossing has often spilled over into Israeli territory during the three-and-half year civil war.
Israel has returned fire into Syria on several occasions in the past after errant mortar shells hit Israeli territory.
Al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front and other Islamist fighters have taken control of a border crossing on the line dividing Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Wednesday.
The fighters, who have vowed to "liberate" the area, captured the Quneitra post on the Syrian side from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad after fierce clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The organization gathers information from all sides in the Syrian war.
Rebels last year briefly took the Quneitra border crossing with Israel and now control many villages in the area.