JERUSALEM, June 27: Israeli soldiers on the Golan Heights came under fire from Syria on Monday, but no one was hurt and the troops did not shoot back in a bid to avoid escalation, the Israeli army said. “There was shooting from Syria towards an Israeli force south of (the Syrian city of) Quneitra,” an army spokeswoman said about the incident on the occupied Golan Heights.

“The Israel Defence Forces did not respond in order to maintain restraint. A protest was lodged with the United Nations (peacekeeping) force,” she said.

Israeli media reports said the soldiers were repairing a border fence when they came under fire from a Syrian army position. Violence is extremely rare on the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

The United Nations Disenga-gement Observer Force on the strategic plateau supervises an Israeli-Syrian ceasefire reached after the 1973 war. —Reuters