Shots Fired At Israeli Drone on Golan Heights, Hit Druze Town

A house in the Druze village of Majdal Shamas was hit by gunfire from Syria, the IDF said Thursday at around 7 p.m. Damage to the house was reported but there were no injuries. According to the IDF statement, the house was hit when shots were fired at an Israeli drone.

Bajat Abu Jabal, a resident of Majdal Shams, said her daughter’s home was hit by shrapnel.

“The gunfire hit my daughter’s house,” Abu Jabal said. “She was alone with her two children, aged three and four. Of course, the children were very frightened cried a lot after the strike – their house is 20 meters from the border. There are always hits there. There where no damages. We hope for peace to come soon.”

Reports suggested the UAV was a Skyrider military drone on an inteligence gathering mission.

The Syrian civil war has placed residents of Israel’s northern-most town, located on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon along the international border with Syria, in a complicated situation. Many people say they consider themselves “Syrian,” rather than Israeli, and nearly everybody in town has close family across the border. The fighting is easily, and often, audible from the center of town, so much so that one mother told this reporter in 2013 that her children could distinguish different types of weapons by the screeches of the bullets they heard.

However, Druze Israelis in other areas of the country have told this reporter that Golan Heights residents find themselves in a complicated position because they fear that international pressure could one day force Israel to withdraw from the area, leaving them at the mercy of the notoriously brutal Assad regime.