Surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center managed to save the life of an Israeli soldier wounded in Syria who arrived at the hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his heart, the hospital said Sunday.
He was one of two soldiers wounded during a clash with gunmen in southern Syria last week who arrived in critical condition, but are now in stable condition in the intensive care unit, the hospital said.
The two soldiers were among six wounded during the brief battle, which took place as the IDF carried out an operation to arrest members of a terror group in the Syrian village of Beit Jinn some seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Israel’s border.
The two critically wounded soldiers were taken to the hospital by military helicopter directly from the field, and were operated on for life-threatening gunshot wounds. One of them was shot in the chest, and the bullet penetrated his vest and stopped inside the heart.
“The surgery was complex and challenging, and included opening the chest both from the side and from the center in order to stop the source of the bleeding,” said Prof. Gil Bolotin, director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at the hospital.
The bullet passed between the heart’s septa, the walls of tissue that separate the heart into different chambers. The doctors “unanimously” decided to leave the bullet in place.
“We may need to operate again to remove the bullet from the heart, we may choose to remove it by catheterization, and there is definitely a possibility that the bullet will remain where it is,” Bolotin said. “Today he is already recovering and communicating with those around him.”
An Israeli military helicopter approaches Haifa’s Rambam hospital before landing there on October 11, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
The soldiers were wounded early Friday morning as the IDF carried out an arrest operation inside Syrian territory, which the military said targeted two members of the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) terror organization who were allegedly planning attacks on Israel.
The pair are brothers, with one considered by the IDF to be the “main” suspect. The military said that the pair had previously launched rockets at Israel.
Israeli troops arrested the two brothers while they were in bed at home. As troops were leaving with the two suspects, they came under fire from unknown assailants, according to the IDF.
The military said the troops returned fire, and the Israeli Air Force also provided support with strikes from helicopters and drones. Fighter jets also conducted several strikes on predetermined targets, the IDF said.
Troops of the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade detain a suspect in the southern Syrian village of Beit Jinn, early November 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to Syria, over 20 people were killed by the Israeli strikes.
Following the incident, Syria condemned the operation as a “war crime.”
“Syria denounces… the criminal aggression” of the IDF, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, charging that such acts aim to “ignite the region” in conflict.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria for nearly a year, since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024. They are mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (nine miles) inside Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces.”
