frequently been attributed to spillover from fighting inside Syria and to Islamist rebels holding ground close to the Israeli-held sector of the strategic plateau.
There has not been rocket fire from Syria at the Galilee for a long time, perhaps since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war known in Israel as Yom Kippur, Israeli media reported.
Analysts said it was a potential game-changer.
“The message is clear: this is a new front, a new battleground,” Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University told AFP.
“The assumption is that they want to send the message that a new front is open now that the situation on the ground is changing,” said Shlomo Mofaz of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism near Tel Aviv.
According to various sources, since January 2013 Israel has launched deadly raids inside Syria targeting regime forces as well the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hizbullah.
Hizbullah, which helps the Syrian regime battle rebels, was the target of a deadly Israeli strike in January in which six of its fighters and an Iranian general were killed on the Syrian side of the Golan.
Several days later Hizbullah retaliated, killing two Israeli soldiers.
Yaalon said Thursday’s attack came from positions under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
“The fire was carried out from territory controlled by the Assad regime, which allows terrorist activity against Israel and which we hold as also responsible,” he said.
He said the actual assault was “carried out by a terrorist cell of Islamic Jihad, operated, funded and armed by Iran”.
Iran is one of Assad’s main backers and a supporter of the Islamic Jihad.
Though active in the Gaza Strip, the militant group has its headquarters in Damascus.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the Islamic Jihad force behind Thursday’s rocket fire was under the operational command of an officer of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.