Israeli shelling wounds 2 near Golan Heights — Syrian state media

DAMASCUS — Israeli shelling wounded two civilians in southern Syria's Quneitra province near the occupied Golan Heights on Friday, state media in the war-torn country said.

"Two civilians were wounded when a tank belonging to the Israeli occupation forces fired two shells near the village of Hamidiya," the SANA news agency said.

There was no immediate official reaction from Israel.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack, adding that the two people, whom it did not identify, were in an area bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan.

Groups linked to Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, an ally of the Damascus regime and sworn enemy of Israel, are active in the area, according to the war monitor, which has a vast network of sources on the ground in Syria.

Since the war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes inside the country, reportedly targeting the Syrian army positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hizbollah fighters.

The Syrian army regained control of the southern part of Quneitra in mid-2018, five years after rebel fighters had 

overrun it.

Israel occupied 1,200 square kilometres of the Golan Heights from Syria in the June War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.