Damascus on Friday accused Israel of a ‘criminal attack’ after 13 people were killed in an Israeli raid in southern Syria.
Israel claimed that during an operation to detain suspects belonging to Jama’a Islamiya – a Lebanese Sunni Islamist, its troops came under fire in a village of Beit Jinn in which six soldiers were wounded and three of them were critically injured, reported Reuters.
The Israeli military further stated that the group had fired rockets at Israel from Lebanon during the Gaza war and accused them of involvement in ‘terrorist plots’.
The Israeli military also accused them of planting improvised explosive devices and “planning future attacks on Israel including rocket fire”.
It termed the raid as part of routine operations in the area in recent months and alleged that the ‘armed terrorists’ fired on its troops, and they responded with fire ‘along with aerial assistance’.
Israel would not allow ‘terrorism and terrorist elements to entrench themselves on our borders,’ said Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
He added that three people suspected ‘of involvement in terrorist plots’ had been arrested on Friday.
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.
Walid Akasha, a local official in Beit Jinn, denied there were any terrorist factions there.
“We’re a peaceful, civilian population, farmers. We have a legitimate right to defend ourselves. We didn’t attack them first – they came onto our land,” Walid Akasha told Reuters by phone.
Akasha said seven people had been taken from the village in an earlier raid in June, since when they had received no news about them. The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the account of the June arrests.
Israel has moved troops and military equipment past a 1974 buffer zone and into southern Syria, including the strategic overlook point of Mount Hermon.