The latest airstrikes came as locals tried to stop Israeli military incursions into Beit Jinn, leading to clashes.
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Israel claimed it was going after members of Jama’a al-Islamiyya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, the group rejected the Israeli claim and said it was not active outside Lebanon.
Here’s everything you need to know about the attack on Beat Jinn and the context behind it.
What happened?
The Israeli Army’s 55th Reserve Brigade raided Beit Jinn on Friday morning, reportedly taking away three Syrians living there, claiming they were members of Jama’a al-Islamiyya and posed a “threat to Israel.”
However, the infiltration did not go as planned. According to the Israeli military, locals protested and the resulting clashes left six Israeli soldiers injured, three of them seriously.
After this Israel sent its war planes.
“We were sleeping when we woke up at three in the morning to the sound of gunfire,” Iyad Daher, an injured resident, told AFP news agency from al-Mowassat hospital in Damascus.
“We went outside to see what was happening and saw Israeli forces, soldiers and tanks in the village,” Daher said. “Then they retreated, the air force arrived – and the shells started falling.”
It was the deadliest of more than 1,000 Israeli strikes on Syria since the fall of the Assad regime
Why were Israeli forces in Syria?
This was not the first time Israel had attacked Syrian territory.
Israeli officials and government-linked media say Israel can no longer respect its enemies’ borders or allow “hostile” groups on its borders following a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and Israel has sought to use force in other countries to create buffer zones around itself in the Gaza Strip, Syria and Lebanon.
Since the fall of the Assad regime last December, Israel has carried out frequent airstrikes across Syria and ground incursions into its south. It established several checkpoints in Syria and detained and disappeared Syrian civilians from Syrian territory, detaining them illegally in Israel.
It invaded the buffer zone that had separated the two countries since they signed the 1974 disengagement agreement, setting up checkpoints around Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon in English).
The new Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, said it would abide by the 1974 agreements.
Israel captured the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. A demilitarized zone was later established, but when President Bashar al-Assad was ousted, and his army was in shambles, Israel invaded to take positions on Syrian-controlled land.
What did the Syrian government say?
That this attack is a war crime.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning, “The criminal attack carried out by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn. The targeting of the city of Beit Jinn with brutal and deliberate shelling by the occupation forces after their failed offensive is an outright war crime.”
What is Israel claiming?
Israel’s public broadcaster said the operation was an “arrest campaign” targeting members of Jama’a al-Islamiyya.
An Israeli military spokesman said three people associated with the group were “arrested”.
Israel claims the group is working to “recruit terrorists” in southern Syria and plays a role in what it calls the “Northern Front” – Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javed reported from Syria that Israel had yet to produce any evidence for its claim that the people it was searching for were involved in the group.
What is Jama’a al-Islamiyya?
The group is the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It was founded in 1956 and has a stable presence in Lebanon, although it has never been as popular as some of its regional counterparts.
It has one member of parliament and was historically associated with the Future Movement, founded by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
However, in recent years the group has become politically closer to Iran and Hezbollah. Its armed wing, the Fajr Forces, took part in some operations against Israel in 2023–24.
Following Israel’s claims that it was involved in southern Syria, the group released a statement on Friday saying it was “surprised” that Israeli media had covered what happened in Beit Jinn.
Condemning the attack, it said it “does not carry out any activities outside Lebanon”.
The group said it followed and remained committed to the November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Has Israel claimed that it was attacking this group before?
Yes.
In March 2024, Israel attacked al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon, killing seven emergency relief volunteers.
It claimed that the attack targeted a member of the group and described him as a “significant terrorist”.
However, the alleged target was never named, the director of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps Ambulance Association told Al Jazeera.
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