Israel says it struck Hamas member in southern Syria

The Israeli occupation military said yesterday that it struck a member of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first air strikes in the country in nearly a month, Reuters reports.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.

Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa accountable.

In response, Damascus said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.

A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades”, an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza last year, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. This, however, could not be independently verified.

Since a coalition of opposition factions ousted the former regime’s president, Bashar Al-Assad, in late 2024, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria, under the pretext of targeting military installations, naval bases and air bases to prevent the new administration from seizing the former army’s arsenal.

Israeli forces have also infiltrated the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and expanded their occupation of Syrian land.