An Israeli minister sees Syrian front 'turning into a major theater of war'

The exchange of fire that followed an Israeli incursion Friday into the village of Beit Jinn, at the southernmost edge of the Damascus governorate, was described as a "defining incident marking the beginning of a new era" by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli on his X account.

"We are no longer facing a terrorist group, but a new enemy state, with an army, an economy, and strategic alliances. It is important to understand that the Syrian front is very likely to turn into a major theater of war," added the minister, a member of the Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army used the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, overthrown on Dec. 8 by a coalition of Islamist rebels, as a pretext to occupy part of Syrian territory and destroy a significant portion of the country's military equipment, despite the change in regime. Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies now demand the demilitarization of the entire Syrian territory from the south of Damascus to the demarcation line established after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

On Friday, Israeli soldiers were fired on by a group of Beit Jinn residents after an incursion allegedly aimed at arresting three individuals affiliated with Jamaa Islamiya. The group has denied any involvement. Six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incident, three of them seriously. Called in as reinforcements, the Israeli air force carried out deadly bombings on the area, killing at least thirteen people.