Rebels aided by al Qaeda-linked militants seized control of the only border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday . The capture of the Quneitra crossing by Syrian rebels , including members of the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front , represents a new dynamic in a war long feared not only for its deadly effects inside Syria but for threatening to widen into a destabilizing regional conflict . The border crossing made headlines earlier this week , when American journalist Peter Theo Curtis was handed over on the Syrian side of the checkpoint by the al-Nusra Front to U.N. peacekeepers . During the fighting on Wednesday between Syrian forces and rebels , three errant mortar rounds and some small-arms fire crossed into Israeli-controlled territory , IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said . An Israeli military officer was moderately injured , the IDF said on Twitter , and Israeli forces responded by striking two Syrian military positions . The Israeli military has closed the area around the border crossing . An activist in the Golan Heights , Shamil al-Jolani , said the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya and other rebel groups , not all of them Islamist , also were involved in the fighting . Video from the scene showed heavy smoke rising from the Syrian side of the crossing . A journalist working with CNN said that heavy shelling and gunfire erupted earlier from the Syrian side but that the situation had since calmed . Jolani said some fighters were able to reach the crossing despite bombardment by Syrian warplanes . Because of agreements with Israel , Syrian forces could not bomb the forces at the crossing , he said . Wednesday 's fighting marks at least the second time rebels have attacked the crossing . In June 2013 , rebels and Syrian forces battled for control of Quneitra . The violence prompted Austrian troops to pull out of a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights . Israel sent tanks and troops to the border for a time , as well . Israel seized control of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War , and fought off an attempt by Syria in 1973 to retake the rocky plateau . In 1981 , Israel annexed the Golan Heights . It is considered to be occupied territory by the international community . Obama weighing options to go after ISIS in Syria .
The Israeli military has closed off the area around the crossing , official says . Israeli rebels take over border crossing between Golan Heights , Israeli -occupied Golan Heights . Errant fire injures two Syrian officer , military says . Israeli military says it fired on one Syrian military positions in response .