Israeli forces kill 13 in southern Syria

Israeli forces in southern Syria raided a village and opened fire when they were confronted by residents on Friday, killing at least 13, Syrian officials said, as Israel fights on a number of fronts while the shaky ceasefire in Gaza moves forward. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the attack was “a horrific massacre” and that women and children were among those killed.

The Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli forces entered the village of Beit Jin, aiming to detain local men and opened heavy fire after being confronted by residents. Dozens of families fled the area. Israel said on Friday it conducted an operation following intelligence information to apprehend suspects from Jamaa Islamiya, or Islamic Group, operating in Beit Jin to attack Israeli civilians. During the raid, several militants fired at Israeli troops, injuring half a dozen soldiers who were evacuated to a hospital, the military said.

 Israeli troops fired at the militants and also responded with aerial assistance, the military said. It said the operation had concluded, all of the suspects were apprehended, and a number of militants were killed.  Israel has regarded the new authorities in the Syrian warily since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive led by Islamist insurgents in December 2024.

Since Assad’s fall, Israeli forces have seized a formerly UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria set up under a 1974 disengagement agreement. Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military sites and pushed for a demilitarised zone south of Damascus. The two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, have been negotiating a potential security agreement to de-escalate. Syrian officials have condemned the Israeli incursions as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty. On Friday, the Government called for the international community to take “urgent action” to halt Israeli incursions.

A local official in the village, Walid Okasha, told The Associated Press that those killed were civilians, and one of them had celebrated his wedding the day before. “The situation is miserable,” he said. In a previous raid on Beit Jin in June, Israeli forces captured several people who they said were Hamas members — a characterisation disputed by residents — and killed a man whose family said had a history of schizophrenia. Ongoing conflicts in the region have fueled concerns that unrest could spill over and undermine the fragile truce in Gaza. The deaths in Syria followed a series of strikes by Israel’s air force in parts of southern Lebanon on Thursday.

Israel says its ongoing strikes are aimed at preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding after a devastating war last year ended with a ceasefire. The United Nations on Tuesday said Israel had killed at least 127 civilians, including children, in its strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire a year ago. Things escalated earlier this week with a rare strike in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, killing a senior Hezbollah official whom Israel described as the group’s chief of staff.