Israel’s army said it had fired on and hit a Syrian military vehicle on Monday, November 12, after a Syrian mortar shell landed in the Golan Heights—the first time in four decades the Jewish state struck a Syrian target from the strategic plateau and the first time Israel has been drawn militarily into its neighbor’s war, The Wall Street Journal reported. Israel and Syria have respected an internationally patrolled demilitarized zone after the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, making the frontier one of Middle East’s quietest. But fire from Syrian battles have been increasingly entering the Golan Heights recently, raising the specter that the area could again become a volatile border zone. The latest exchange also opens the possibility of a troubling new flash point in a war that is already spilling over Syria’s other borders.