Israel strikes weapons in southern Syria after projectiles fired into Golan

The Israeli military says it launched strikes on weapons belonging to the Syrian government in southern Syria, hours after two projectiles were fired from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli strikes caused "significant human and material losses" in Deraa province, Syria's foreign ministry said, accusing Israel of aggravating tensions in the region.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he held interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the projectiles that landed in open areas in the southern Golan.

A little-known group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades - a reference to Hamas's late military chief - claimed it had fired two rockets.

Israeli media reported that the projectiles were the first launched from Syria since rebels Sharaa overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime last December, ending 13 years of civil war.

"Violent explosions shook southern Syria, notably the town of Quneitra and the Deraa region, following Israeli aerial strikes," said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

In a statement, Syria's foreign ministry said: "This escalation constitutes a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and aggravates tensions in the region.

"Syria has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region."

It was unclear how many people were killed or injured in the Israeli strikes.

Israel said the strikes came after two projectiles launched from Syria landed in open areas of the Golan Heights, causing no injuries.

The Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades released a night-time video on a Telegram channel that it said showed the moment the projectiles landed, although it was not immediately possible to verify the armed group's claim of responsibility.

"We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel," Israel Katz said.

"We will not allow a return to the reality of 7 October," he added, referring to Hamas's deadly attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.

Syria's foreign ministry said reports of the launches from inside Syria had "not been verified yet" and noted that "several parties are seeking to destabilize the region to further their own interests".

When the Assad regime was deposed in December, Israel launched a wave of attacks to degrade Syrian military infrastructure.

It also sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon. Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later effectively annexed it, in a move not recognised internationally.

Israeli leaders have also demanded the complete demilitarisation of three southern Syrian provinces, saying they consider Sharaa's Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - a former al-Qaeda affiliate - as a threat.

Last month, Israel bombed an area near Syria's presidential palace in Damascus, a strike which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was a "clear message" that it would "not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the bombing was a "violation of Syria's sovereignty".

Two weeks later, US President Donald Trump announced plans to lift decade-old sanctions on Syria, imposed in response to atrocities committed by forces loyal to Assad during the civil war.

During that conflict, more than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others were forced from their homes.