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Drone strike near Beit Jinn
Syria denounced an Israeli drone attack near the Golan Heights after Syrian state television reported that a man was wounded when an "Israeli occupation drone" struck a vehicle in the town of Beit Jinn, located southwest of the capital Damascus and near the Golan Heights.
“an "Israeli occupation drone" struck a vehicle in the town of Beit Jinn”
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a communiqué that the attack was "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Arab Republic of Syria and of the integrity of its territory" and a breach of international law.
The Israeli army said its forces "fired in southern Syria at a terrorist who was carrying out terrorist attacks in the final stages of preparation," adding that the individual posed an "imminent threat" to soldiers.
The strike was described by Al Jazeera as hitting a small delivery truck on the main road between the Beit Jinn farmland and the town itself, with residents rushing a wounded man to hospital after hearing the explosion.
Al Jazeera also reported that Beit Jinn lies roughly 55km from Damascus and has been repeatedly targeted in the past year, including a late November raid that killed 13 civilians.
Competing claims and messages
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that Saturday’s strike resulted in several civilian injuries and that it "condemns in the strongest terms" the targeting of a "civilian vehicle" by an Israeli drone.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Adham Abu al-Hussam said residents described one of the victims as "a civilian who works as a driver, delivering goods and orders on this truck," and reported that the man was in stable condition with an injury to his right hand.
In parallel, the Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it had targeted “a terrorist who advanced terror attacks in their final stages of preparation” in southern Syria and that the activity “posed an immediate threat to our forces”.
Al Jazeera quoted security and strategic researcher Muhsen al-Mustafa at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies in Damascus saying the attack could be Israel sending Syria’s government a message that "Israel currently treats Syria, particularly the south, as a security zone it is trying to fill any vacuum in."
The same Al Jazeera report said Syria remains committed to de-escalation and is pursuing a security arrangement with Israel through United States mediation, based on the 1974 disengagement agreement.
Golan dispute and next moves
The drone strike unfolded amid a wider dispute over the Golan Heights, with Tom Barrack—described in the sources as the U.S. president Donald Trump’s special envoy for Syria—denouncing an "avoidable escalation" after Israel bombed an unused military air base in northwest Syria.
“"full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the president’s own stance regarding the Golan Heights."”
Acento reported that Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that Barrack’s comment was "full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the president’s own stance regarding the Golan Heights."
Al Jazeera also reported that Barrack criticized Israel’s control over the Golan Heights and described it as an "occupation that violates United Nations resolutions and the entire international order," while Katz accused Barrack of contradiction on X.
Kurdistan24 said Syria condemned the strike as a “flagrant violation” of sovereignty and described it as the second reported Israeli attack on Syrian territory in a week amid growing tensions along the two countries’ border.
TRT World reported that the strike came as Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria and expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the UN-monitored buffer zone, in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement.