Israeli raid in Syria claims 13 lives

Published
3
BEIT JINN (Syria): Two youths inspect the site of an Israeli strike in this southern Syrian village, which left over a dozen people dead, the deadliest attack since the fall of the Assad regime.—AFP
BEIT JINN (Syria): Two youths inspect the site of an Israeli strike in this southern Syrian village, which left over a dozen people dead, the deadliest attack since the fall of the Assad regime.—AFP

• UN condemns Israeli incursion; Damascus calls it a ‘war crime’

• Execution of Palestinians in Jenin termed ‘summary execution’

• E4 condemns settlers’ violence in occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM/DAMASCUS: Israeli military killed 13 people in a raid on a village in Syria on Friday which Damascus called a criminal attack, and in the occupied West Bank it injured three Palestinians in its ongoing operation in a Palestinian refugee camp.

The Israeli military claimed six soldiers were wounded, three of them severely, during an incursion in the village of Beit Jinn.

Israel frequently bombed Syria when it was ruled by Assad and stepped up its military operations in the country after he was ousted, citing goals that include keeping fighters away from the frontier.

Syrian state news agency SANA, which reported 13 people killed and dozens wounded, said Israeli forces shelled Beit Jinn and Israeli troops entered the village. Residents confronted the Israeli forces, which responded, leading to “violent clashes”.

Syria’s foreign ministry said the Israeli attack killed more than 10 civilians, including women and children, damaged property and forced residents to flee their homes, accusing Israel of committing a “full-fledged war crime”. Walid Akasha, a local official in Beit Jinn, denied there were any terrorist factions there.

Meanwhile, Najat Rochdi, the UN’s Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, condemned Israel’s incursion as “a grave and unacceptable violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, further destabilising an already fragile environment”.

Three injured in West Bank

Separately, Israeli continued its military operation in Far’a refugee camp in occupied West Bank, injuring three people on Friday. According to Al Jazeera, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society transported three injured people out of Tubas.

Israeli tank fire injured one child in the Rafah area, according to local Palestinian media reports. Israeli forces have started tearing down homes and buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The operation follows an earlier warning from the Israeli military that troops would raze 24 structures in the camp, which it said is required for “operational” purposes.

‘Summary execution’

The United Nations said on Friday that the killing of two Palestinians, shot dead in occupied West Bank while seemingly surrendering to Israeli forces, was an “apparent summary execution”.

“We are appalled at the brazen killing by Israeli border police yesterday (Thursday) of two Palestinian men in Jenin,” UN rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva, calling the incident “yet another apparent summary execution”.

He said UN rights chief Volker Turk was calling for “independent, prompt and effective investigations into the killings of Palestinians”, and for those responsible for killings and other violations in Israeli-occupied West Bank to “be held fully to account”.

Meanwhile, France, Germany, Italy and UK have demanded Israel to abide by international law and protect Palestinians in West Bank as illegal Israeli settler attacks reached their peak in nearly two decades.

According to Middle East Monitor, the foreign ministers of four countries, commonly known as the E4, in a joint statement strongly condemned the massive increase of settler violence against Palestinian civilians and called for stability in the occupied West Bank.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2025

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