A fire burns on the Israeli-controlled side of the line dividing the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria during fighting near the Quneitra border crossing August 27, 2014 (Photo: Reuters)
Rebels, including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, seized the Syrian side of the sole crossing to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday, a monitoring group said.
"Al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups took the Quneitra crossing, and heavy fighting with the Syrian army is continuing in the surrounding area," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He said at least 20 Syrian soldiers and four rebels were killed in the fighting for the crossing that erupted earlier on Wednesday.
The heavy fire strayed across the armistice line into the Israeli-occupied part of the strategic plateau, where the army said an Israeli officer was moderately wounded.
Six mortar rounds crashed into the occupied part of the Golan, the army said, adding that it returned fire.
"In response to the errant fire from the internal fighting in Syria, which hit Israel earlier today and injured an IDF (army) officer, the IDF just targeted two Syrian army positions in the Syrian Golan Heights. Hits were confirmed," it said in a statement.
Later in the day, another stray shell lightly injured a civilian in a village in the Israeli-occupied sector, the army said, providing no immediate details.
Israel, which is technically at war with Syria, seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the plateau has been tense, with a growing number of rockets and mortar rounds, mostly stray, hitting the Israeli-controlled side, prompting occasional armed responses.
In June, an Israeli teenager was killed in a deliberate cross-border attack, which prompted Israeli warplanes to attack Syrian military headquarters and positions.
In June last year, the Quneitra crossing briefly fell to rebel forces, before being recaptured by Syrian army troops.
The armistice line is patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force. that has been increasingly depleted by the withdrawal of contributing nations' troops in the face of the persistent violence.
The Philippines said Saturday it would repatriate its 331-strong contingent in the UN Disengagement Observer Force mirroring earlier moves by Australia, Croatia and Japan.
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