Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has succeeded in maneuvering between the different players in this complex arena without getting swept into the fire itself. Israeli deterrence has succeeded in stabilizing an alignment of checks and balances that has proven itself: Hezbollah’s attempts to open a “second front” against Israel on the Golan Heights — in addition to the Israeli-Lebanese border — have been blocked and have failed. The Israeli Golan is usually quiet, while on the other side, at a distance of several hundred meters, an intransigent and brutal war is taking place between Assad’s forces, backed by Hezbollah, and the rebel forces.

Every so often an errant mortar shell lands on the Israeli side, the IDF responds with force and destroys a Syrian army position, and quiet returns. That’s how it has been handled for more than five years. In the background, the slander continues regarding Israel’s alleged cooperation with the Shuhada al-Yarmouk organization (Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade), the local branch of the Islamic State (IS) that controls a limited sector on the Israeli border on the Golan Heights. Senior Israeli figures have strongly denied such cooperation for the entire period. “We have no connection or interest with them,” a senior officer in the sector told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Israel doesn’t interest them, and as long as that’s the situation, they don’t interest us.”

The only interface between the two sides so far took place at the field hospital Israel established on the Golan Heights, to which some of the injured in the battles on the Syrian Golan have arrived in recent years. “When injured fighters arrive, we don’t check with whom they’re affiliated and we treat them,” an Israeli minister told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

This idyll ended Nov. 27. A force from the Golani patrol battalion was on reconnaissance across the border fence near the Israeli village of Nov, where there is an enclave over the border administered by Israel. Suddenly a vehicle patrol of IS fighters attacked the Israeli force. They fired on the Israeli force with heavy machine guns and small arms and fired mortar shells at them. The Golani soldiers responded with fire. At the same time, an Israeli plane arrived and destroyed the attacking vehicle, killing the four terrorists in it. “For the first time here, we saw a real battle,” a senior Israeli source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “It wasn’t [battle] overflow and it wasn’t a mistake. It was a planned attack.”