IDF: Sirens in Golan Heights ‘False Alarm’

Sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sounded on Thursday afternoon in Israeli communities on the Golan Heights, near the frontier with Syria.

Residents reported hearing explosions and seeing signs of a possible rocket interception by the Iron Dome antimissile defense system with some claiming it was a shooting down of an aircraft which entered Israeli airspace from Syria.

Security officials later squashed all rumors and said that the sirens went off by mistake.

“An Iron Dome was activated. The circumstances are being investigated. It should be stressed that the reports of a drone being identified and intercepted are false,” the IDF said.

The Golan regional council told residents they were cleared to come out of their bomb shelters.

Tensions are high along the Israel-Syria border. Last week, Iranian forces in Syria fired rockets towards Israel, but they were intercepted by its Iron Dome system.

Israel then launched its most intensive airstrikes into Syria since the start of the Syrian civil war.