The Israeli army targeted Friday a Syrian post on the northern Golan Heights after forces there fired a shell into the buffer zone, the military said.

 

The Syrian mortar fire, which struck near Israel's security fence, was "part of the internal fighting between the regime and the rebels in Syria", it said, without giving details on the retaliation.

 

The Israel army was "not involved in the internal fighting in Syria" but "it will continue to implement the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement that includes maintaining the buffer zone," the military said in a statement.

 

An Israeli army spokeswoman would not specify if the post targeted belonged to the Syrian regime or rebel forces.

 

Syria and Israel have never signed a formal peace treaty.

 

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, in a move never recognized by the international community.