On Friday, Israel killed at least 13 peopleincluding two children, in the rural town of Beit Jinn in Damascus.
The latest airstrikes came after locals tried to repel an Israeli military incursion into Beit Jinn, leading to clashes.
Recommended Stories
List of 3 itemsEnd of the list
Israel claimed they were targeting members of Jamaa al-Islamiya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, the group rejected the Israeli claim and said it was not active outside Lebanon.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Beit Jinn attack and the context behind it.
What happened?
The Israeli Army’s 55th Reserve Brigade raided Beit Jinn in the early hours of Friday morning, ostensibly to take away three Syrians living there, claiming they were members of Jamaa al-Islamiya and posed a “danger to Israel.”
However, the idea did not go according to plan. Locals resisted and six Israeli soldiers were injured in the resulting clashes, three of them seriously, according to the Israeli army.
Israel then sent its fighter jets.
“We were sleeping when we were woken up by gunfire at 3 a.m.,” Iyad Daher, a wounded resident of Al-Mouwasat hospital in Damascus, told AFP.
“We went outside to see what was going on and saw the Israeli army in the village, soldiers and tanks,” Daher said. “Then they withdrew, the Luftwaffe came – and the shells started falling.”
This was the deadliest of Israel’s more than 1,000 attacks on Syria since the fall of the Assad regime
Why were Israeli forces in Syria?
This was not the first time Israel invaded Syrian territory.
Israeli officials and pro-government media say that after the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, Israel can no longer respect the borders of its enemies or allow “enemy” groups along its borders, and Israel has tried to use force in other countries to create buffer zones around itself Gaza StripSyria and Lebanon.
Since toppling the Assad regime last December, Israel has carried out frequent airstrikes across Syria and ground strikes in the south. It set up numerous checkpoints in Syria and arrested Syrian citizens, disappeared them from Syrian territory and illegally detained them in Israel.
It entered the buffer zone that has separated the two countries since the signing of the 1974 disengagement agreement and established outposts around Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon in English).
The new Syrian government under Ahmed al-Sharaa said it would abide by the 1974 agreement.
Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. A demilitarized zone was later established, but with President Bashar al-Assad overthrown and his army in shambles, Israel moved in to capture outposts on Syrian-controlled land.
What did the Syrian government say?
That the attack is a war crime.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning “the criminal attack by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn.” The brutal and premeditated attack by the occupying forces on the city of Beit Jinn after their failed invasion constitutes a genuine war crime.”
What does Israel claim?
The Israeli public broadcaster said the operation was an “arrest raid” against members of the Jamaa al-Islamiya.
An Israeli army spokesman said three people linked to the group had been “arrested.”
Israel claims the group operates in southern Syria to “recruit terrorists” and plays a role on the so-called “northern front” – Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reported from Syria that Israel has not yet provided any evidence to support its claim that the people it is seeking were involved in the group.
What is Jamaa al-Islamiya?
The group is the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Founded in 1956, it has a stable presence in Lebanon, although it has never been as popular as some of its regional counterparts.
It has one MP and has historically been linked to the Future Movement, founded by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
However, in recent years the group has moved politically closer to Iran and Hezbollah. Its armed wing, the Fajr Forces, took part in some operations against Israel in 2023–2024.
After Israel claimed it was involved in southern Syria, the group released a statement on Friday saying it was “surprised” that Israeli media had implicated it in the events in Beit Jinn.
It condemned the attack and said there would be “no activities outside Lebanon.”
The group added that it has abided by and committed to the November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Has Israel ever claimed that it is attacking this group?
Yes.
In March 2024, Israel attacked al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon. seven emergency volunteers killed.
It claimed the attack targeted a member of the group, describing him as a “significant terrorist”.
However, the alleged target was never named, the director of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps Ambulance Association told Al Jazeera.
