October 2, 2026
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday it has carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced its troops operated in Syrian territory.
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.
The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” though it did not say exactly when it occurred. Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement, but a pro-government Syrian radio station, Sham FM, reported Sunday that Israeli force carried out a “kidnapping operation” over the summer targeting a man in the south of the country.
The disclosure of the raid comes as Israel has waged an escalated campaign of bombardment in Lebanon for the past six weeks, as well as a ground invasion along the countries' shared border, vowing to cripple Hezbollah, On Saturday, an Israeli military official said naval forces carried out a raid in a northern Lebanese town, seizing a man they called a senior Hezbollah operative.
The army identified the man it seized as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, saying he lives in the southern Syrian region of Saida. It said the man had been under military surveillance for many months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.
Body camera footage of the raid released by the army showed soldiers seizing a man in a white tank top inside a building. The man was brought to Israel for interrogation, the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, saying his focus was trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria. 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.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued an offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the military has said it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped there.
An explosion rocked Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, injuring patients, the hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiya said in a statement to the media. But the IDF in a statement denied striking Kamal Adwan on Sunday, blaming “an explosive device planted by the terrorist organizations in Gaza” for the most recent attack.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.
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