Syrian media say 13 killed in Israeli raid as six Israeli soldiers are wounded

An Israeli military raid in the southern Syrian town of Beit Jinn led to a firefight, air strikes and reported casualties, including two children, before dawn on November 28. Syrian state media said at least 13 people were killed, including two children, while reports put the number of wounded at 24 or 25. Six Israeli soldiers were also injured, three of them seriously.

Israel said the operation was aimed at members of Jamaa Islamiya who had planned attacks against Israeli civilians. Syria rejected that account of the raid’s legitimacy and condemned the incursion and subsequent shelling as a war crime. The supplied sources do not independently resolve the identity of every person killed or establish whether all of Israel’s intended targets were members of the named group.

An overnight detention operation

The Israel Defense Forces said troops entered Beit Jinn, about 11 kilometers east of the Israeli-controlled frontier and roughly 40 kilometers southwest of Damascus, to detain suspected militants. The Jerusalem Post reported that soldiers took two suspects from their beds and were attacked as their convoy left the town.

According to the IDF account carried by the BBC and the Jerusalem Post, armed people opened fire and Israeli troops responded with ground fire and air support. Six Israeli reservists were wounded: three seriously, one moderately and two lightly, the Jerusalem Post reported. The most seriously injured soldiers were taken for hospital treatment, including surgery and intensive care for two at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

The IDF later said the operation had been completed, all suspects had been apprehended and a number of people it described as terrorists had been killed. Syrian state news agency Sana reported that three people were arrested before the Israeli force withdrew, creating a discrepancy over the number detained that the available evidence does not explain.

Air strikes and civilian deaths

Syrian media said residents confronted the Israeli troops and that the clash was followed by shelling and air strikes. Footage released by the IDF and described by the BBC showed two air strikes, one apparently directed at a group of people and another at a building. Body-camera video showed soldiers firing on a dark street as automatic gunfire could be heard.

Sana reported 13 deaths. Al Jazeera, citing Syrian state media, said two children were among those killed and that 25 people were injured. The Jerusalem Post gave the same death toll but cited 24 wounded, so the precise injury count remains uncertain. A local hospital director said five members of one family were among bodies received, according to the BBC.

The Syrian Civil Defence said its teams could not initially enter Beit Jinn because movement in the area was still being targeted. Dozens of families fled toward nearby locations considered safer, and Syrian media reported continued drone activity overhead. Those conditions complicated the rescue operation and the early assessment of casualties.

One wounded resident told AFP, in an account carried by Al Jazeera, that gunfire woke him at about 3 a.m. He said residents saw soldiers and tanks in the town, after which the ground force withdrew and shelling began. His testimony describes his own experience and does not by itself establish the sequence across the entire operation.

Competing accounts of the target

Israel identified its targets as members of Jamaa Islamiya, a group the Jerusalem Post described as a Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that had worked alongside other armed groups against Israel. The IDF said those targeted had advanced plans to attack Israeli civilians.

Local people interviewed or described by Al Jazeera disputed the presence of Hezbollah or other militias in the town, saying the community consisted largely of farmers and shepherds. That claim conflicts with Israel’s account and could not be independently verified from the evidence packet. The neutral finding supported across the sources is that an Israeli arrest raid encountered armed resistance and was followed by substantial Israeli firepower, including aircraft, drones or artillery.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry characterized the operation as a deliberate attack and a full-fledged war crime. It called on the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League to act against what it described as repeated Israeli aggression. That is the Syrian government’s legal and political characterization; the supplied sources do not include an independent legal determination.

A changing security map in southern Syria

The raid occurred nearly a year after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Since then, Israel had moved forces beyond the established buffer zone on the Golan Heights and increased operations in southern Syria. Israel said the deployments and raids were necessary to prevent hostile armed groups and the Syrian military from establishing a threat near its border.

The buffer zone was created under a disengagement arrangement after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The United Nations said Israel’s movement into it violated the agreement and called on both sides to uphold the framework, according to the BBC. Israel had also taken additional positions, including the strategic summit known as Jabal al-Sheikh or Mount Hermon.

Israeli forces had established checkpoints and patrols in parts of Quneitra province, while Syrian authorities and rights groups disputed Israel’s description of detentions as security operations. The November 28 raid therefore fit a broader pattern of Israeli activity, but its heavy casualties and the wounding of six Israeli soldiers made it an unusually severe confrontation.

The operation also came while the United States was trying to mediate a security arrangement between Israel and Syria. Those talks had not produced an agreement. A recent visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials to Israeli-held territory in southern Syria had angered Damascus and reinforced doubts about whether the two governments could settle the status of the area.

By the end of November 28, the main facts were clear even as key claims remained contested: Israeli troops entered Beit Jinn seeking alleged militants; armed resistance wounded six soldiers; Israel used air and ground fire during the withdrawal; and Syrian sources reported 13 deaths, including children. The disagreement over who was targeted and whether the raid was lawful remained part of a larger dispute over Israel’s expanding military presence in post-Assad southern Syria.