ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Syria’s state broadcaster said on Friday that nine people were killed in an Israeli campaign in the southern Beit Jinn area, while the Israeli military said six of its own were injured during a cross-border raid against Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanon-based Hamas ally. 

“Nine martyrs and others injured as a result of the Israeli aggression on the town of Beit Jinn” in Rif Dimashq province, Al-Ikhbariya said, previously reporting Israeli strikes in the area “after an Israeli military patrol was surrounded during its incursion into the town, leading to clashes with residents before its withdrawal.” 

The Israeli military said that it carried out a cross-border campaign against Jamaa Islamiya, which resulted in “several armed terrorists” opening fire at the officers and troops who embarked on the operation. 

“As a result of the incident, two reserve officers and a reservist were severely injured, a reservist was moderately injured, and a reserve officer and a reservist were lightly injured,” the Israeli military said.

The Israeli military claimed that “all of the suspects were apprehended and a number of terrorists were eliminated,” announcing that the operation had concluded. 

Jamaa Islamiya is a Sunni Islamist political group in Lebanon. Founded in 1964, it is seen as a fierce Hamas ally, and the two militant groups have carried out joint operations. 

Israel has repeatedly launched attacks against Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, nominally to destroy weapons caches and protect the minority Druze community that has been the target of sectarian massacres at the hands of Damascus-affiliated armed forces.