ISRAELI warplanes bombed targets inside Syria early today in retaliation for a cross-border attack that killed an Israeli teenager the previous day.

Nine military targets were hit and “direct hits were confirmed,” claimed an Israeli spokesman.

The targets were located near the site of Sunday’s violence in the Golan Heights and included an alleged regional military command centre and unspecified “launching positions.” 

In Sunday’s attack, an Israeli civilian vehicle had been struck by forces in Syria as it drove in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. 

A teenage boy was killed and two other people were wounded in the first deadly incident along the Israeli-Syrian front since Syria’s civil war erupted three years ago. 

“Yesterday’s attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel and a direct continuation to recent attacks in the area,” said a military spokesman. 

He said the military would “not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel’s sovereignty.”

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war, but its annexation of the area has never been recognised internationally.

Israel has carried out several airstrikes on arms shipments allegedly headed from Syria to Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon.

It was not immediately clear whether Syrian troops or one of the many rebel groups battling the government carried out Sunday’s attack in the Golan. 

But Israel said it was clear that the attack was intentional and has repeatedly said it holds the Syrian government responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory, regardless of who carries them out.