A Foreign Ministry statement said an Israeli military patrol crossed into Syrian territory in Beit Jinn, where it confronted residents and “attacked civilians and their property,” triggering direct clashes that forced the patrol to withdraw.
Israeli forces then launched “deliberate and brutal” strikes on the town after the failed incursion, describing the attack as a “full-fledged war crime,” the statement added.
Syria announced it holds Israel “fully responsible” for the raid and its consequences, including casualties and destruction, warning that continued “criminal aggression” threatens regional stability and reflects a systematic effort to destabilize the area and impose “an aggressive reality by force.”
Syria’s information minister said Friday that Israeli military incursions into the country’s territory are “provocative,” stressing that Damascus will not be drawn into the escalation Israel seeks.
“Israel is trying, through its incursions, to provoke the Syrian state,” Hamza al-Mustafa, Syria’s information minister, told state-run Alikhbaria TV, adding that Syria is “in a position that does not allow us to move in the direction Israel wants through these provocations.”
Meanwhile, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ibrahim Olabi, said there can be no security agreement with Israel before its attacks stop, emphasizing that Damascus is committed to exercising restraint in the face of Israeli actions, according to the private Syria TV.
Olabi noted that Damascus will submit a briefing to the Security Council on the latest Israeli assaults.
Responding to Israel’s continued escalation, Olabi stressed that “reacting to Israeli provocations would cost Syria important political gains,” and the government will not be lured into confrontation.
He rejected Israel’s “flimsy excuses” for its operations, saying Damascus “is not dealing with the baseless excuses Israel puts forward.”
He added that a Security Council delegation is expected to visit Syria soon and meet President Ahmad al-Sharaa, as part of a diplomatic engagement on the situation.
At least 13 people were killed, including women and children, and as many were wounded early Friday in the Israeli attack on the town of Beit Jinn and the road leading to Mazraat Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside, according to official Syrian media.
The Israeli army announced 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 Jamaa Islamiya,” alleging that they “operated in the area of Beit Jinn in southern Syria and advanced attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The Israeli army has staged 48 raids in southern Syria in November.
Government data showed that Israel 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 government 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.