Damascus, Syria – November 28, 2025 – In a major overnight operation that has drawn sharp international condemnation, Israeli forces launched a ground incursion into the town of Beit Jinn in the southwestern Damascus countryside, killing at least 13 Syrian civilians and wounding more than 25 others. The attack, involving combat helicopters, armed drones, and artillery support, is one of the deadliest Israeli raids inside Syrian territory since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024 and the subsequent takeover by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Syrian state television and the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the assault began around 3 a.m. when an Israeli special-forces unit entered Beit Jinn, a mountain town on the slopes of Mount Hermon only a few kilometers from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Residents quickly surrounded the patrol after Israeli troops attempted to detain three young men accused of links to the Jaama Islamiya militant group. What began as a brief abduction operation rapidly escalated into a two-hour firefight.
Trapped inside the town, the Israeli soldiers called in air and artillery support. Helicopter gunships and drones struck residential areas to create an evacuation corridor, while artillery batteries in the Golan Heights shelled surrounding neighborhoods. Syrian medical sources confirmed that among the 13 killed were two children and one woman. At least 25 others were wounded, several critically, with rescue teams reporting difficulty reaching victims under collapsed buildings due to continuous drone surveillance.
The Israeli military confirmed the operation but described it as a “targeted counter-terrorism raid” that encountered “heavy armed resistance.” Israeli media later acknowledged that 13 soldiers were wounded—three of them seriously—after what was described as a “complex ambush” that forced the unit to abandon one armored Humvee, which was subsequently destroyed by an Israeli airstrike to prevent its capture.
The raid came only 24 hours after another Israeli ground incursion into the village of Umm al-Luqas in Quneitra province, where four military vehicles entered, searched homes, and withdrew without reported casualties. Syria’s foreign ministry condemned both operations as flagrant violations of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and multiple UN Security Council resolutions, demanding an immediate international response.
Since the fall of Assad on December 8, 2024, Israel has dramatically intensified its military activity inside Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly ordered the IDF to establish new positions inside the UN-patrolled buffer zone, seize strategic hilltops including parts of Mount Hermon, and conduct regular ground patrols as deep as 20–30 kilometers inside Syrian territory. Israeli officials justify the moves as necessary to prevent the emergence of new hostile militias in the post-Assad vacuum.
The current Syrian government, dominated by HTS—a group that grew out of al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch—has notably refrained from any significant military response to these incursions. HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) has instead pursued a policy of de-escalation and even quiet normalization with Israel. Since early 2025, HTS has cracked down on anti-Israel factions, arrested Palestinian militants operating near the Golan, and signaled openness to eventual diplomatic relations, including potential participation in an expanded Abraham Accords framework. These overtures, encouraged by the United States and several Gulf states, have coincided with a marked increase in Israeli freedom of action inside Syria.
For the people of Beit Jinn and surrounding villages, the consequences have been devastating. Hundreds of families have fled toward safer areas deeper inside Damascus province, joining thousands already displaced by repeated Israeli raids over the past year. Winter conditions on Mount Hermon are exacerbating an emerging humanitarian crisis, with local authorities reporting shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), tasked with monitoring the 1974 agreement, has repeatedly warned that the buffer zone is effectively collapsing. Israeli checkpoints now operate openly in several Syrian villages, and IDF engineering units have been photographed constructing permanent observation posts well beyond the lines established half a century ago.
As Syria’s fragile transition continues, the events in Beit Jinn underscore a bitter irony: the same HTS-led government that promised to restore sovereignty and dignity to the Syrian people has presided over the deepest Israeli military penetration of Syrian soil in decades. Whether this reflects pragmatic realism in the face of overwhelming Israeli power, or a calculated trade-off in exchange for Western recognition and sanctions relief, remains a subject of fierce debate both inside Syria and across the region.
For now, the residents of the Damascus countryside are paying the heaviest price, caught between an emboldened occupying army and a new ruling authority that appears unwilling—or unable—to mount meaningful resistance.
