ISRAELI air strikes killed three soldiers and injured seven as missiles struck targets in the Syrian capital Damascus and the surrounding countryside today, the second attack in the space of a week.

Tel Aviv claimed it was responding to an attack on Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.

An Israeli army spokesman said it was unclear who fired the two rockets but said it held Syria responsible for any attacks launched from its territory.

Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We will not tolerate any firing into our territory and we will respond with great force to any aggression against us.”

On Monday Israel launched an attack on a Syrian anti-aircraft position it claimed had fired on one of its war planes.

A Syrian military source said: “On Sunday at dawn some hostile aerial targets appeared, coming from the direction of the occupied Golan. Immediately our air defences confronted them and downed the hostile missiles that were targeting our positions in south-western Damascus.”

He added that Israel had “renewed its aggression by firing several missiles on the eastern countryside of Quneitra. The aggression resulted in the martyrdom of three soldiers and the injury of seven others, in addition to some material losses.”

The attacks came as regional tensions escalate, with the US threatening military intervention against Iran.

Tel Aviv has admitted to carrying out hundreds of air strikes against Syria, claiming to be targeting Iranian and Lebanese forces.

US President Donald Trump inflamed regional tensions further in March when he announced Washington’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory that Israel seized in 1967’s six day war and has occupied ever since.

Hawkish US National Security Adviser John Bolton is set to meet his Israeli and Russian counterparts in Jerusalem later this month to discuss regional security issues.