Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights on Saturday, prompting Israel to complain to U.N. peacekeepers, a military spokesman said.
The foray would be the first such violation in 40 years and stirs concerns that violence from Syria's civil war could heat up a long-quiet frontier.
Israel's relatively low-key response of turning to the U.N. suggested it did not see the Syrian armor as an immediate threat.
But the entry marks the most serious spillover of Syria's turmoil at the frontier to date. Misfired Syrian shells have exploded inside Israel on several occasions, and a tourist site was temporarily closed after armed Syrians were spotted nearby recently.
The three tanks entered the DMZ on Saturday, and Israel lodged a complaint with the peacekeepers, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol. She did not elaborate on what the tanks were doing.
The Israeli news site Ynet said the tanks and two armored personnel carriers drove a few miles away from Israeli military positions.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed the strategic territory overlooking northern Israel in a move that is not recognized internationally. Before 1967, Syria used the highlands to shell Israeli villages and farms.
There was no immediate comment from Syria.
Concern over the Syrian tanks came as Syrian rebels launched a dawn assault Saturday on a strategic airbase in the north of the country.
Fighting at the Taftanaz airbase continued into the afternoon, the anti-regime activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Capturing the base ? and holding on to it ? would be a major achievement for the rebels, The assault, reported by activists, came a day before the start of a key international conference in Qatar at which the United States and its allies aim to reorganize the opposition's political leadership and unite their ranks. The leadership-in-exile has been widely seen as ineffective and out of touch with rebel fighters.
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