ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syrian foreign ministry on Thursday condemned Israeli pre-dawn raid in southern Syria. One person was killed in the operation and several others were detained. Israel claimed it targeted Palestinian Hamas movement.
The ministry said the attack took place in Beit Jinn town in Rif Dimashq near the Lebanese border, adding that the move violated international laws.
It also called on the international community to ”take firm steps to stop these repeated aggressions and to ensure respect for international law, in order to maintain security and regional stability.”
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday that its troops “executed a targeted, intelligence-based nighttime operation in Syria and apprehended several Hamas terrorists who had been attempting to advance multiple terror plots against Israeli civilians and IDF troops in Syria. The terrorists were transferred to Israeli territory for further interrogation.”
The Israeli army claimed that they also confiscated weapons during the raid.
The now-dissolved Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), headed by Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, spearheaded a coalition of opposition groups in early December that toppled Assad’s regime.
Since then, Israel has intensified efforts to destroy Damascus’s military stockpiles, and Israeli forces have entered a buffer zone east of the annexed Golan Heights, justifying their actions as a security precaution amid Syria’s ongoing political instability.
