Thirteen killed in deadliest Israeli raid for months in southern Syria

At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli raid on a village in southern Syria overnight, state media reported, in one of the bloodiest incidents of its kind in months. She added that there were children among the dead.

Syrian news agency SANA said residents of Beit Jinn “confronted” Israeli forces, sparking a gun battle. Air strikes were also carried out. The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it described as a “war crime” committed by Israel.

The Israeli army said that forces entered the village on the outskirts of the occupied Golan Heights to arrest activists it said were “carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.”

She added that six Israeli soldiers were injured in the clashes, three of them seriously.

The Israeli army said it targeted the Armed Islamic Group group in an operation on Friday. She added that when the raid began, “several armed terrorists opened fire” on her soldiers, who responded by opening fire.

SANA said that the village was also bombed. Footage released by the Israeli military shows two airstrikes – one apparently on a group of people, the other on a building. In body camera footage also released by the Israeli army, soldiers can be seen firing in a street in the dark with the sound of automatic gunfire being heard in the distance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said one building collapsed during the operation.

The Israeli army later said that “all suspects were arrested, and a number of terrorists were eliminated.”

SANA said that the forces arrested three people before they withdrew.

SANA quoted a local hospital director as saying that he received bodies, including five bodies from one family. The director said that dozens of people were also injured in the accident.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that more than ten civilians were killed, including women and children. It accused Israel of committing a “full-fledged war crime” and called on the UN Security Council to do something to stop Israel’s “policy of aggression.”

Israel regularly carries out incursions into Syrian villages, saying it works to prevent the presence of armed groups.

Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad nearly a year ago, Israel has moved its forces across a buffer zone in the Golan Heights into southern Syria, where a number of anti-Israel groups and cells operate.

Israel says it will not allow the Syrian army, which it considers a threat, to deploy there.

The buffer zone, a demilitarized zone, was a no-go zone meant to maintain peace after the ceasefire that ended the 1973 war between Israel and Syria. The United Nations said the deployment of the Israeli army there was a “violation” of the agreement, which it said both sides must abide by.

For months, the United States has been mediating talks between Israel and Syria in order to reach a security agreement in the region between the two sides, but without success.