The Times of Israel reports:

Israeli troops wounded one person after opening fire Friday on demonstrators in southern Syria, with the military saying the soldiers did so to remove “a threat.”

According to the local Daraa 24 outlet, residents of towns in the Yarmouk River basin gathered near a former Syrian army post close to the village of Maariya to protest against the IDF presence in Syria.

The outlet said the soldiers opened fire in the air to stop the demonstrators from approaching, and one person was hit directly and wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces later confirmed the incident. It said soldiers who were calling on suspects to move back amid the demonstration “identified a threat that required action to remove,” without elaborating.

The troops acted according to the open-fire procedures, and shot one of the protesters in the leg, according to the IDF.

“We emphasize that the IDF does not intervene in the events taking place in Syria,” the military said, adding that it will “continue to act to protect the State of Israel and its citizens.”

Maariya, on the western edge of Syria’s southern Daraa province, is near the Israeli Golan Heights, but outside of a buffer zone in the Golan established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel.

Friday’s incident came a day after villagers alleged that the troops stationed in the abandoned army base were preventing local farmers from accessing their fields. [Continue reading…]