Internal criticism in Israel after 6 troops wounded during raid in southern Syria

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Senior Israeli military officers criticized the army on Friday after six troops were wounded and failed to recover their vehicle during a predawn raid in the village of Beit Jinn in Syria’s Damascus countryside, local media reported.

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said the operation began around 3 am, when reservists from the 55th Brigade and the 210th Division moved into Beit Jinn, on the slopes of Mount Hermon, to arrest two brothers based on intelligence gathered in recent days, according to its account.

The brothers, the broadcaster said, were detained without resistance. It claimed the two were members of what it called the “Jamaa Islamiya” and were suspected of planting explosives targeting Israeli forces and firing a rocket toward Israeli troops.

As the soldiers left the house with the detainees, gunmen about 200 meters away opened fire on one of the military vehicles blocking the building’s entrance, wounding six soldiers inside, KAN added.

The broadcaster said the troops returned fire, killing several gunmen, while Israeli aircraft fired to isolate the area. The six wounded, including three officers and three reservists, were evacuated by helicopter for treatment.

After the vehicle was disabled by gunfire and could not be moved, the air force struck it.

Israel’s Walla news site reported sharp criticism within the army’s Northern Command over the incident, saying officers faulted the unit’s deployment and the fact that the force was surprised by the ambush.

The gunfire forced troops to leave behind a military Humvee in Syrian territory. The air force later located and struck the vehicle, the outlet reported.

It added that Israeli defense officials had not yet determined who opened fire but were not ruling out the possibility that Hamas or Islamic Jihad members were operating in the area, according to Israeli claims.

Israeli assessments also included the possibility that Hezbollah fighters carried out the attack in retaliation for the killing of the group’s chief of staff, Haitham al-Tabtabai, earlier in the week.

At least 13 people were killed, including women and children, and as many were wounded, according to official Syrian media and an Anadolu correspondent.

The state-run TV channel Alikhbaria reported that Israeli drones continued to fly over the area following the strikes, particularly along the road linking the two towns.

Many victims are still trapped under the rubble, it added, as the residents are still working to recover them.

The broadcaster said dozens of families fled Beit Jinn toward nearby safer areas after the attack.

Earlier, the channel reported that an Israeli patrol had entered the town and briefly clashed with residents before withdrawing.

The Israeli army said in a statement that six Israeli soldiers were injured, including three in critical condition, during the operation.

It claimed that it detained members of “the Jaama Islamiya,” alleging that they “operated in the area of Beit Jinn in southern Syria and advanced attacks against Israeli civilians.”

There have been no comments by the Syrian authorities on the Israeli strike and the claim.

The Israeli army has staged 47 raids in southern Syria in November.

Government data showed that the Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces since December 2024.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.