How did the hours of the Israeli operation in Beit Jinn pass for its Syrian residents? | policy

Al Jazeera Net correspondents

Damascus- The town of Beit Jinn, located in the far countryside of Quneitra, witnessed an Israeli military escalation at dawn on Friday, which resulted in deaths and injuries, and the destruction of homes in the town.

Activist Amjad Al-Hajji told Al Jazeera Net, “An Israeli patrol raided one of Beit Jinn’s houses, which led to clashes between the town’s youth and the occupation elements,” and he added that the clashes resulted in the injury of a number of occupation elements, who were forced to withdraw towards the occupied territories, leaving behind a four-wheel-drive jeep.

He pointed out that Israeli helicopters bombed the town with several missiles in conjunction with artillery shelling from Tal Al-Bat, which led to the killing of 13 civilians – including two children and two women – and the wounding of more than 20 others, and the partial destruction of 20 homes.

The town of Beit Jinn is now experiencing a state of cautious calm, while more than 50 families have left the town for neighboring villages, fearing the reaction of the Israeli occupation, while reconnaissance planes are still in the sky of the area and have not left since the early hours of the morning.

Field certificates

Civil defense teams faced difficulty in heading to the town to transport the wounded to hospitals, due to the Israeli forces targeting any movement in the vicinity of the area. They targeted a car and a motorcycle while trying to transport the wounded out of the town. The teams were able to enter the town more than 4 hours after the targeting operations, and transported the wounded to nearby hospitals and from there to the capital, Damascus.

Ahmed Kashout, a resident of the town of Beit Jinn, recounts the details of the first moments of the bombing that targeted his house at dawn today, saying, “Shortly before dawn, an artillery shell fell on my house and directly hit one of the rooms. The glass began to break and some kitchen shelves fell, and dust spread throughout the house. My three children began screaming out of fear, and we felt that we would lose our lives at any moment.”

Kashout was forced to evacuate the house immediately, and he carried his children to go out to one of the nearby houses that contained a basement to hide from the continuous bombing. Then they left at the beginning of sunrise to the Beit Jinn Farms area, where one of his sisters lived, in search of a safe place, leaving everything behind.

After the town witnessed a state of calm and the bombing stopped, the people prayed for the victims’ families in one of the squares, then took them to their final resting place. After completing the burial, the people returned to the town square, announcing a collective condolence, and began chanting against the Israeli occupation, stressing that they would not allow it to enter the town.

Implications of the Israeli operation

Brigadier General Asaad Al-Zoubi confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that what happened in the town of Beit Jinn carries a number of intentional political and military messages, and goes beyond being a security incident or an arrest operation, as Israel is trying to show.

Al-Zoubi added that the first message is that the operation coincides with the one-year anniversary of the launch of the “Battle to Deter Aggression,” and carries an Israeli assertion that it does not recognize the new Syrian reality nor the stage after the fall of the regime, and that it began from day one trying to redraw the borders of its influence inside Syria, by activating local networks associated with it.

The second message – according to Al-Zoubi – is the direct Israeli response to the new Syrian government’s rejection of the terms of an agreement that Israel was seeking to impose, considering that this rejection raises concern for Tel Aviv because it means that “the current Syrian leadership is not ready to make the concessions to which the occupation aspired.”

Al-Zoubi pointed out that the third message comes in the context of recent political developments, as Israel is trying to obstruct any Syrian-American rapprochement, and to send a message that it is not concerned with Washington’s position or Security Council decisions, and that it “will impose what it wants by military force.”

Military dimension

Brigadier General Al-Zoubi stressed that what happened was “militarily illogical” when compared to the Israeli pretext, saying that the use of aircraft and opening fire in this manner confirms that the operation was planned and not a passing security incident.

He explained that Israel has been working for some time to install military points extending over an area of ​​approximately 950 square kilometers, starting from the west of Beit Jinn towards Khan Arnabeh, then Spring of Sakhr, all the way to Al-Mu’allaqa and Sidon Al-Hanout, an area that constitutes a natural extension of the Quneitra countryside, which has an area of ​​about 1,800 square kilometers.

Al-Zoubi believes that these movements show an Israeli effort to redraw the borders of its occupation or impose an agreement within this area. He considered that what is happening in the town “is not a passing event,” suggesting that Israel will continue its policy of provocation, pressure, and sabotage in the region as part of a long-term plan aimed at “consolidating the occupation and imposing new facts on the ground.”