Israel’s Beit Jinn raid highlights potential Hamas-linked networks in southern Syria

On November 27, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation in the southern Syrian village of Beit Jinn. According to the IDF, “troops conducted an operation to apprehend suspects from the [Jamaa] Islamiya [Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood] terrorist organization operating in the Beit Jinn area of southern Syria.” The statement added that “several armed terrorists opened fire at the troops. IDF soldiers responded with live fire, supported by aerial assistance.” The clashes resulted in injuries to six IDF soldiers. Arabic sources confirmed that 13 Syrians were killed by Israeli strikes targeting the village.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement that “the occupation forces’ deliberate and brutal bombing of the town, following the failure of their incursion and the residents’ repulsion of it, constitutes a full-fledged war crime.” The Jerusalem Post noted that the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, citing “informed sources,” claimed that “Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s general intelligence orchestrated the attacks on the IDF on Thursday night,” a reference to the resistance Israeli troops encountered after arresting the two suspected members of the Islamic Group, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This incident comes at a time when Israeli sources have reported that Palestinian terror groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have begun rebuilding their military infrastructure in Syria.

Beit Jinn has long been a hub for Hamas-linked activity. The village, a small community of fewer than 3,000 people in the Rif Dimashq Governorate and about 50 kilometers from Damascus, has repeatedly been the target of Israeli operations. In January 2024, the IDF killed Hassan Okasha, a senior Hamas figure in Syria. His brother, Abu Jarah, who was reportedly responsible for launching rockets at Israel in 2015, had also been killed there earlier by an Israeli strike. Israel conducted another raid in June 2025, announcing 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.”

According to eyewitnesses from Beit Jinn, an Israeli patrol entered the village “to arrest three young men from the village.” When the patrol encountered “resistance from local residents, it called for reinforcements, turning to aerial bombardment.”

The IDF raid targeted two brothers, one considered to be the “main suspect.” The Israeli military said that the pair had previously launched rockets at Israel but did not clarify which attack it was referring to, nor did it explain why members of the Islamic Group, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, were operating in southern Syria. However, when reviewing the history of rocket fire from south Syria toward Israel, one incident stands out.

On June 3, at around 10 pm Israeli time, two rockets were launched from Syrian territory and landed in the Golan Heights. A group calling itself the “Martyr Mohammad Deif Brigades,” reportedly founded on May 30, 2025, claimed responsibility. The group is named after slain Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif, who was killed in July 2024. Hamas denied any connection to the group, saying, “We have no knowledge of their background or who is behind them.” The Martyr Mohammad Deif Brigades later described itself as a “Palestinian resistance movement unaffiliated with any established faction and committed to a revolutionary path.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Lebanese branch and Hamas in Lebanon maintain a close operational relationship. Following October 7, the two organizations operated under a shared leadership structure, with the Islamic Group’s military wing functioning under the command of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades to conduct attacks on northern Israel. It is possible that this coordination has extended beyond Lebanon’s borders to include remnants of Hamas’s Syrian branch. Beit Jinn is also located near Sunni villages in southern Lebanon, such as Chebaa, which could further facilitate these connections.

However, the Islamic Group has publicly denied any activity outside Lebanese territory, stating, “We affirm that the Islamic Group is Lebanese and has no activity outside Lebanon, and we reject the use of our name in any actions unrelated to us. We also affirm our commitment to what the Lebanese state agreed to in the ceasefire with the occupation, and our adherence to the authority of the law and Lebanese state institutions.”

Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian intervention in Arab affairs and the levant.