At least 12 people, including children, have been killed after Israel launched another ground incursion and air strikes in the Damascus countryside, Syrian state media reported on Friday.
According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the Israeli assault began at dawn in the town of Beit Jinn, forcing dozens of families to flee.
The bodies of at least five Syrians, including two children, were transferred to the Golan National Hospital in Quneitra.
Israeli drones continued to hover over the area as fighting persisted.
The Syrian Civil Defence said its rescue teams were unable to reach Beit Jinn because Israeli forces were targeting any movement on the ground.
Local sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that multiple civilians were killed and many more wounded by Israeli missile and artillery strikes.
The latest attack comes amid increasingly bold and frequent Israeli operations in southern Syria, where Israel has expanded its occupation following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Beit Jinn has become a flashpoint, with Friday’s raid sparking armed clashes between local residents and Israeli troops.
The Israeli military said in a statement that six soldiers were wounded, three seriously, during an exchange of fire. It claimed the operation had been “completed,” saying all suspects were either arrested or “eliminated,” though Israeli forces remained deployed in the area to confront “any threat.”
Israel frequently conducts incursions into Quneitra province and parts of the Damascus countryside near the occupied Golan Heights, despite the UN General Assembly’s resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from all occupied Syrian Golan territory to the June 4, 1967 lines in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and has occupied it since.
Most of the Syrian cities, towns, and villages in the Golan were destroyed by Israeli occupation forces, who have built over 40 illegal settlements despite all international condemnation. Israel continues not only to occupy the Syrian Golan but also to destroy its ancient ruins and geopolitical atmosphere for the sole purpose of cleansing the Golan of its Syrian people and their history.
After Assad’s fall, Israel violated the 1974 disengagement agreement and pushed deeper into Syrian territory, taking more land to create a buffer zone, including the strategic summit of Jabal al-Sheikh.
Although Israel had already been bombing Syria prior to Assad’s ouster, largely targeting Iranian-linked sites, its campaign has intensified significantly this year, including strikes in Damascus that killed Syrian soldiers and hit the Ministry of Defence.
Tensions escalated further earlier this month when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli troops in the newly occupied zones of southern Syria.
Damascus condemned the visit as a provocation, deepening doubts about the prospects of any security arrangement between the two countries.
Across Quneitra, Israel has set up tanks, checkpoints and gates, stopping and searching civilians. Syrian authorities and human rights groups say dozens of civilians have been detained, describing the actions as abductions or unlawful arrests.
As many as 40 people have reportedly been taken into custody in recent weeks.
The incursion comes as Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, attempts to stabilise a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war and re-engage with the international community.
Marking the anniversary of the rebel offensive that toppled Assad, al-Sharaa delivered a televised address on Thursday urging Syrians to celebrate what the government views as a turning point.
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