OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli army said it struck Syrian military targets near the Golan Heights late Friday after munitions were fired from Syria earlier in the day.

"Earlier today, munitions were fired from Syria toward Israel. In response, our aircraft struck military targets in southern Syria belonging to the Syrian Armed Forces," the Israeli army said on its official Twitter account.

Syria TV reported a loud explosion on the outskirts of Quneitra.

Under the terms of a 1974 UN armistice that demilitarized much of the Golan, Israel withdrew from the abandoned capital of Quneitra province which it had razed to the ground after capturing it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The destroyed town had fallen into rebel hands in 2014 before Assad regime forces regained their hold on the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights.

The area is considered strategic territory bordering Jordan and Israel.

Following the Israeli airstrikes on Friday, the Israeli military said it would "hold the Syrian regime responsible & will respond to any violation of Israeli sovereignty."