On June 12, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that “troops of the 3rd Brigade, under the command of the 210th Division, completed an operation to apprehend Hamas terrorists operating in the Beit Jinn area of Syria.”
The IDF’s announcement added that “based on intelligence gathered in recent weeks, IDF troops executed a targeted 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.” Israeli forces transferred the suspected militants back to Israel for interrogation and released photos of confiscated weapons.
On June 12, the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced that “an Israeli military force comprised of tanks and APCs stormed into Beit Jinn, along with unmanned aerial vehicles.” The statement added that the “attack resulted in the death of a civilian and the kidnapping of 7 individuals” and ended by criticizing Israel’s “continuous provocations that do not lead to stability and push the region to more tensions.”
Beit Jinn is a small town in southern Syria with a population of less than 3,000 individuals, according to the latest Syrian census. The town is part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate and is 50 kilometers from Damascus.
A resident of the town told the Saudi newspaper Asharq al Awsat that at “2:40 am, they woke up to the sound of bullets, and then they realized that an IDF force comprised of tens of soldiers stormed into the town, while 10 tanks were positioned at its entrance.” He later added that the “IDF surrounded the homes of individuals they wanted to arrest, and kept repeating their names through loudspeakers, and then arrested 7 individuals.”
The source also said that during the arrest of one of the individuals, a cousin of his who was mentally ill tried to stop the IDF, which led them to shoot him and kill him. The resident added that the “IDF left the town at 4:15 am and took the individuals with them.” He clarified that the arrested individuals were all Syrians who were native to the town and affiliated with Syrian opposition factions that rebelled against Bashar al Assad.
The arrested individuals were Amer al Badawi, Maamoun al Saadi, Ahmad al Safadi, Mohammad al Safadi, Hassan al Safadi, Mohammad Badie Hamada, and Ali Qasem Hamada.
Last week, the IDF announced that it “struck a Hamas terrorist in the area of Mazraat Beit Jinn in southern Syria.” Mazraat Beit Jinn is close to Beit Jinn and falls under the same administrative council. A notable figure in the area claimed that the individual who was targeted, Anas Aboud, was a former fighter affiliated with factions that rebelled against the Assad regime.
This is not the first time Israel has targeted militants in Beit Jinn. In January 2024, the IDF killed Hassan Okasha, a leader in Hamas’s Syria branch, in the town. Okasha’s brother, Abu Jarah, was also killed by the IDF in the same town earlier. He was reportedly responsible for launching rockets targeting Israel in 2015 during the battles of Beit Jinn.
