The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as a “criminal assault” carried out by an Israeli patrol that infiltrated the town of Beit Jinn (a town in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, near the occupied Syrian Golan Heights), attacking civilians and their property.

In a statement issued today, Friday 28 November, the ministry said Syria condemns “the criminal and flagrant assault” that led to direct clashes after residents of the town confronted the attacking patrol and forced it to withdraw from Syrian territory.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates added that after the failure of this incursion, the occupation forces went on to target the town of Beit Jinn with what it called “brutal and deliberate shelling that constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” after the Israeli forces “committed a horrific massacre” that claimed the lives of more than ten civilians, including women and children, and caused a large displacement movement as a result of the continued “barbaric and deliberate” shelling of the homes of civilians, according to the statement.