The United States is exerting efforts to reduce tension between Israel and Syria, after the recent incident in Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside, according to Israel's public broadcaster KAN News.
It said Washington conveyed a message asking Tel Aviv to exert some calm while the administration considers sending to Israel next week two envoys, including Morgan Ortagus, to support regional stability.
An informed source also told KAN that Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya members who were arrested after operating in southern Syria admitted to ties with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, during an interrogation.
The detainees also admitted to receiving funding from these sources in order to arm themselves to carry out attacks against Israel, the source revealed.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, largely based in Lebanon, had published a denial that it is operating in Syria. This came after the Israeli army said it killed three members of the group in Beit Jinn in southern Syria in an overnight operation on Thursday, that the military confirmed on Friday.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Israeli army conducted the operation in the Syrian village to destroy military reinforcements built by Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya.
An army source said the operation aimed at preventing the group from obtaining missiles that could be used in future attacks on Israeli territory.
The channel noted that the group is a Sunni organization, but it cooperates with Hezbollah. It said Israel decided that it could no longer be ignored.
In recent months, the region witnessed additional attempts by several groups, to establish bases in the Syrian Golan Heights, with an aim to threaten Israeli forces stationed in the buffer zone or the Israeli settlements, the channel said.
“Facing attempts by terrorist organizations to strengthen its grip in Syria, Israel sent messages to President Ahmad al-Sharaa through various countries, declaring that it could no longer ignore such developments,” the channel noted.
Therefore, it said, Israel expects Damascus to take decisive measures to prevent the groups from building terror infrastructure.
Also, the Yedioth Ahronoth reported last week that after the incident in southern Syria, Israel sent messages to al-Sharaa’s government and began preparing a range of possible responses.
According to the newspaper, security officials said there is no indication so far that al-Sharaa’s people were directly involved.
They said the incident reinforces Israel’s view that it cannot allow hostile forces to entrench themselves near the border, and that there is no realistic path to an agreement with Damascus for now because Syria remains unstable.
“More than anything, this shows we must not withdraw from the areas we captured, especially Mount Hermon,” officials said.
In another report by Channel 12, a source close to the Syrian government confirmed that the Bein Jinn attack was an isolated incident, and warned that Islamist elements were trying to undermine any progress between Syria with Israel.
“The al-Sharaa regime has no interest in losing understandings made with Western countries in preparation for a security agreement with Israel,” the official noted.
The Channel accused Iran of being involved in events happening in southern Syria to prevent any security agreement between Damascus and Tel Aviv.
“The problem with Islamists is that they cooperate with other groups. Iranians, Hamas and Hezbollah do not want the Syrians and Israelis to reach an agreement,” the Syrian official told Channel 12.
