The Israeli military said it monitored the advance of the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet and shot it down with a pair of Patriot missiles after it penetrated Israeli airspace by about two kilometers (1.2 miles). Tuesday marked the first time government forces reached the border fence with the U.N.'s Disengagement Observer Force at the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. This was the first time that Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet since 2014, when another Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet entered Israeli airspace and was targeted with a Patriot missile. Israel's military said there had been an increase in internal fighting in Syria since the morning hours, including intensified activity by the Syrian Air Force. Israel stressed that it will continue to enforce the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, which requires Syria to abide by a demilitarized zone between the two countries 
 
 Minutes before the plane was shot down, Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV was broadcasting footage from the fence demarcating the UN buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces inside the Golan Heights. A U.N. observer post could be seen just on the other side of the fence. The camera showed an Israeli post 400 meters (440 yards) away. In recent weeks, sirens in northern Israel have been triggered by the military shooting down unmanned aerial vehicles entering Israeli airspace from Syria.
– Israel angered Syria over the weekend when it coordinated the evacuation of members of the White Helmets civil defense group from the latter country. On Tuesday, things got even dicier, with Israel's military announcing that it shot down a Syrian jet that had crossed about a mile into Israeli airspace. The plane went down within the Syrian border, but it wasn't immediately clear if the pilot or pilots were able to evacuate, reports the Times of Israel. Syria, meanwhile, rejects the accusation that the jet was ever in Israeli territory. It's the first time in four years that Israel has downed a Syrian jet. The incident comes as Syrian forces seek to reclaim territory near the Israeli border from rebels and Islamic State militants, notes the AP. In fact, Syrian TV was showing footage from the fence marking the UN buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian troops in the Golan Heights just prior to the plane being shot down. Israeli captured the Golan Heights from Syria back in 1967, and this is the first time in seven years that Syrian troops have been back along the frontier.