IDF Commandos Wounded in Daring Syria Raid Targeting Hamas-Linked Militants
Night raid against Hezbollah-linked cell turns bloody in southern Syria.
Israeli Defense Forces commandos launched a daring overnight incursion into Southern Syria to capture operatives of the Lebanese Islamist Group Jamaa Islamiya, resulting in six soldiers being wounded—three of them in serious condition—during a fierce firefight, the military confirmed in a detailed statement released Friday morning. The operation, conducted under cover of darkness in the Beit Jin area close to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, targeted individuals the army described as part of a Hamas-aligned network with direct operational ties to Hezbollah.
According to the IDF, the suspects had established a forward base in southern Syria and were actively planning attacks on Israeli civilian communities across the border. The exchange of fire erupted as the elite unit moved to arrest the militants, highlighting the extreme risks Israeli forces now routinely undertake in Syrian territory following the dramatic collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 and the subsequent takeover by a new Islamist-led administration in Damascus.
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria and has permanently stationed troops inside the long-standing UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights—a demilitarised area created after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981 remains unrecognised by the international community, and a UN Security Council resolution passed on November 6 explicitly reaffirmed Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, underscoring the legally contested nature of Israel’s expanding military footprint.
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The wounded soldiers were swiftly evacuated by helicopter to hospitals inside Israel, where medical teams reported that the three seriously injured troops were undergoing emergency surgery while the others were listed in stable condition. Military sources described the operation as a necessary pre-emptive strike against an imminent threat, despite the heavy cost to the raiding force.
Although high-level diplomatic channels facilitated by France and the United States had opened tentative talks over the summer aimed at reaching a broader security understanding with Syria’s new leadership, Friday’s clash demonstrates that Israel continues to prioritise unilateral action over negotiation when it perceives direct threats along its northern border, further complicating efforts to stabilise the volatile region.
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