Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Office
IDF soldiers outside Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. (Archive)

An examination conducted by the IDF has shown that the explosion that had taken place Friday close to an IDF force patrolling the Israel-Syria border, was caused by an explosive charge activated on the eastern side of the border.

The IDF is sweeping for mines along the border, using large bulldozers.

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Friday’s explosion took place between Majdal Shams and a field hospital which the IDF is running to serve wounded Syrians coming across the border for treatment.

Military sources say they don’t yet know who was responsible for the charge, whether it’s the Syrian Army or Al Qaeda terrorists. No one has taken responsibility so far. The IDF has increased its presence in the near the explosion.

The explosion took place Friday afternoon, when the IDF force was in the midst of operational activities near the border at the center of the Golan Heights. None of the soldiers was hurt, but the blast from the explosion was felt in side the force’s jeep, and later it was discovered that a rear window had cracked.

The army is reconstructing the border fence between Israel and Syria, doing massive fortifications in response to the deterioration of the rule of law on the other side as a result of the ongoing civil war.

Clashes between the army and rebel groups near the Golan Heights border have intensified last week. The area is being contested by both sides, even as many wounded Syrians are crossing the b order to receive treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Meanwhile, the AP reported that Syrian government aircraft early afternoon Saturday pounded the rebel-held northeastern city of Raqqa, killing at least 12 people including five children and four women.

The rebels are saying airstrikes are often a prelude to government ground offensives, which means Assad’s troops may be mounting a major operation to recapture lost territory ahead of the January peace talks in Geneva.

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Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.