Israel conducted a ground operation in Syria and detained an individual that it stated was working as an Iranian operative gathering intelligence on Israeli troops in the border area, the Jewish state’s military stated on Nov. 3.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) named the man they seized as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, a Syrian citizen from the area of Saida in the south of the country.
The IDF stated that the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” but it didn’t specify exactly when it occurred.
“The operation by Israel Defense Forces troops to detain al-Assi prevented a future attack and led to the exposure of the operational methods of Iranian terror networks located near the Golan Heights,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Following months of surveillance, al-Assi was brought to Israel for investigation, according to the statement.
Footage of the raid from body cameras released by the IDF shows soldiers seizing a man in a white tank top inside a building.
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria.
But this was the first time during the current conflict that the Jewish state revealed that its troops had operated on the ground in Syria.
Damascus has not yet confirmed the incursion, but pro-Assad radio station Sham FM reported on Nov. 3 that Israel had carried out a “kidnapping operation” in southern Syria over the summer.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, often targeting Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.
Last month, Israel launched aerial strikes on western Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus stated, noting that the strikes hit a military site in Hama and a car assembly plant in Hassia.
In September, Israeli strikes hit several areas in central Syria, damaging a highway in Hama Province and sparking fires, Syrian state news agency SANA reported at the time.
Fourteen people were killed, and more than 40 were wounded, according to SANA.
Israel has stated that it will stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since the country is a key route used by Iran to send weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza.
Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to more than a year of fire by the group into northern Israel.
While visiting the border with Lebanon on Nov. 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his focus is on trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people over the past year, according to Beirut, while, in Israel, 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah rockets.
Israeli forces continue their offensive in northern Gaza, where the military has stated that it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped there.
The expansion of ground operations into Syria means that Israeli troops are now operating in three other sovereign nations— Lebanon, Iran, and Syria—as well as in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
