Deadly clash deepens rift between Israel and Syria

Israel’s military said its troops entered the area of Beit Jinn, less than 10 miles from the border, to apprehend two suspected militants when they came under fire. Syria’s state-owned media said at least 13 people were killed in the ensuing shootout. Israel’s military said six of its soldiers were injured, three of them severely.

The violence underscored the challenges that remain across Israel’s frontiers, even as a fragile cease-fire takes hold in Gaza and fighting there subsides. In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in the country’s south, Israel has aggressively carved out buffer zones around its territory, including in Lebanon and southern Syria.

Syria’s government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led a lightning rebel offensive that overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad late last year, has spoken sharply against Israel’s military maneuvers in the country’s south.

When the Assad regime collapsed a year ago, Israel’s military moved quickly to gain a foothold by occupying a 155-square-mile buffer zone between the two countries. Israeli officials since then have said their troops could remain in Syria for an extended period.

Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes to take out remnants of Assad’s military apparatus, and established outposts from which its troops could patrol the area. It has demanded that the new Syrian government maintain a demilitarized zone south of the capital, and struck its military headquarters in Damascus in July in what it said was an effort to defend the Druze minority, which has strong ties to Israel, from sectarian attacks.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials visited the buffer zone and met with troops, signaling that Israel isn’t planning to withdraw anytime soon. The visit drew sharp condemnation from Syria’s foreign ministry, which called it illegal and a serious violation of the nation’s sovereignty.

“The message there was clearly that although Syria is trying to reposition itself and there’s support for Sharaa’s vision, there are still red lines," said Nir Boms, a Syria researcher at Tel Aviv University in Israel. “Not generally, and especially not after Oct. 7, we do not want to see armed militias in the vicinity of the border," he said.

Discord between Israel and the new leaders in Damascus have been a point of frustration for the U.S., which has embraced Sharaa on the back of his pledges to reform the government and unify a nation fractured by years of civil war. U.S.-brokered negotiations toward a security agreement between Syria and Israel appear stalled.

The incident on Friday was among the deadliest in the area since the Assad regime collapsed. The bloodshed caused outrage among Syrians, who view Israel as an aggressor. “One problem is that Syrians themselves don’t see small anti-Israel groups as a threat to them, per se," said Joel Parker, also a Syria researcher at Tel Aviv University. “So when Israel invades, they feel like Israel is the problem, not local militants," he said.

Israel’s military said troops acted on intelligence to arrest two suspected members of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a militant group that it said cooperates with U.S.-designated terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. It said the group maintains military sites in southern Lebanon as well as terror infrastructure along the Lebanon-Syria border, where Beit Jinn is located. It called the group a “significant terror presence."

Israel’s military said the suspects were involved in planting bombs and planning rocket attacks against Israel. It said its troops came under fire after the men were apprehended, and they fired back. It said several suspects were detained and brought to Israel, and that a number of others were eliminated.

Analysts said that ultimately, Israel and Syria’s new leaders still have some common ground, but Israel’s propensity for acting unilaterally makes cooperation difficult. “We have partners in Syria with whom we can work," said Boms, the researcher. “But what needs to happen is a security framework that will guarantee that we have good intentions, goodwill."

Write to Feliz Solomon at feliz.solomon@wsj.com