Syria condemned an Israeli drone strike that wounded one person in the village of Beit Jinn southwest of Damascus, marking the second reported attack on Syrian territory in a week.
The weekend strike near Damascus follows a pattern of heightened military activity that has strained relations across the region as reported by Kurdistan24. Syria’s Foreign Ministry denounced the drone attack as a flagrant violation of its territorial integrity and international law, following an earlier strike on a disused military base in northwestern Syria.
Border Clashes and Military Infrastructure Strikes
The latest violence centered on Beit Jinn, situated southwest of Damascus near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, where state media published images of a damaged truck after a vehicle was hit. The Israeli military defended its actions by stating its forces had targeted an individual preparing an attack that posed an immediate threat to troops in southern Syria.
This operation came on the heels of heavier strikes earlier in the week. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the earlier attack targeted the Abu al-Duhur military airbase because Syria was allegedly permitting Turkish troops to deploy there, a move Israel argued breached an established security status quo.
Ankara rejected the suggestion that its forces posed a threat or occupied the site. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities issued a condemnation through their Foreign Ministry, labeling the military infrastructure strikes a dangerous escalation.
Casualties in Damascus Suburbs and Diplomatic Clashes Over Washington’s Stance
In a separate incident in the southern Damascus suburb of Kiswah, drone strikes killed eight soldiers and wounded others. Syrian state news agency SANA reported that initial strikes on Tuesday targeted soldiers patrolling an area where eavesdropping and surveillance devices were discovered, complicating rescue efforts and the retrieval of bodies. Washington issued a rebuke following the northern airbase strike, calling it an unnecessary escalation. US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack suggested in an interview that the strike might have been an attempt to draw Turkey into a conflict ahead of upcoming Israeli elections.
full of inaccuracies.
Israel Katz, Israeli Defense Minister
Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected Barrack’s assessment, noting that intelligence information had been provided to authorized US parties before the operation. Katz also criticized the US envoy’s description of the Golan Heights as occupied territory, arguing it contradicted President Donald Trump’s position.
Strategic Realignment and Unresolved Border Pressures
The security landscape in southern Syria has shifted dramatically since the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Israeli forces have moved into parts of the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights and carried out hundreds of strikes to dismantle remaining military assets.
Israel occupies territory in southwest Syria it seized after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in 2024. The new authorities in Damascus have said they do not want a conflict with Israel, but Israel has remained suspicious of the government led by former Islamist insurgents. Following Tuesday’s strikes on the Abu al-Duhur airbase, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a statement: Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.
Abu al-Duhur military base was captured by anti-Assad forces in December 2024. After the strike Turkey did not confirm whether any of its troops moved to the Abu al-Duhur airbase, which sits 70km from the Turkish border. However, Ankara rejected Israel’s suggestion that it posed a threat. Abu al-Duhur airbase has been out of service as a dedicated military airfield since 2013, and rebel forces seized control of the base as they swept through the country in December 2024.
In an interview on Friday, the US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, suggested that the strike could be the Israelis baiting the Turks
in an attempt to draw Turkey into a conflict ahead of upcoming Israeli elections. Barrack’s comments led Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, to describe his account as full of inaccuracies.
Writing on X, Katz added Israeli forces were acting in light of clear intelligence information about Turkey's intentions.
Katz also said that Israel had provided intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States
before carrying out Tuesday’s strike. He accused Barrack of making statements that contradicted the position of US President Donald Trump on the Golan Heights, after the US envoy described the territory as “occupied.”
The Syrian Foreign Ministry described the strike as a flagrant violation
of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and a breach of international law, stating the attack was part of a pattern of repeated Israeli strikes against Syrian territory. Syrian state television reported that an Israeli occupation drone
targeted a vehicle in the village of Beit Jinn, southwest of Damascus near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, with state media publishing an image showing a damaged truck. The Israeli military said its forces had fired in southern Syria at a militant who was preparing to carry out attacks, noting the individual’s activities posed an immediate threat
to Israeli troops, though it did not identify the person or specify whether he belonged to a particular armed group. In a post on X, the Israeli military said it had targeted a “terrorist” in the “final stages” of preparing attacks which posed an immediate threat to soldiers.
Türkiye on Friday condemned Israel’s strike targeting military infrastructure in southern Syria, branding it a dangerous escalation.
In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the attack violated international law and Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, calling on the international community to assume responsibility to halt Israel’s attacks and stressing the importance of implementing the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement. “Türkiye will continue, as it has done so far, to stand in solidarity with the Syrian government and its people in efforts to establish lasting stability and security in the country on the basis of Syria’s territorial integrity, unity, and sovereignty,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Earlier, the Israeli army claimed that it had struck a command center and weapons depots at military bases belonging to the Damascus administration in southern Syria.
In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Ministry statements noted that drone strikes Tuesday in the southern Damascus suburb of Kiswah killed eight soldiers, calling the attack a grave violation of international law
and clear breach of (Syria's) sovereignty and territorial integrity,
and stating it comes in the context of the repeated aggressive policies pursued by the Israeli occupation aimed at undermining security and stability in the region.
Late Wednesday evening, Syrian state news agency SANA reported more Israeli strikes and an airdrop commando raid in the area, the details of which are not known.
SANA reported that initial strikes on Tuesday had targeted soldiers who, while on patrol, discovered surveillance and eavesdropping devices,
and that ongoing strikes prevented other troops from reaching the area until the following evening, while other soldiers were able to retrieve the bodies of those killed the day before and to destroy some of the (surveillance) systems by targeting them with the appropriate weapons.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on different parts of the country, destroying Syrian army assets. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X on Tuesday that Israeli forces will remain indefinitely in the security zone necessary to protect the Golan and Galilee settlements from threats looming from the Syrian side,
adding that the deployment was a result of lessons drawn from the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a point that links Damascus with the southern province of Sweida that witnessed deadly clashes last month between pro-government gunmen and fighters from Syria’s Druze minority. Syria has been trying to rebuild its military facilities that were damaged.
