Israeli Drone Strike on Delivery Truck Injures Several in Southwestern Syria

An Israeli drone strike in southwestern Syria has left several people injured, according to the country's foreign ministry, marking another incident in a series of near-daily incursions and attacks in the region.

Syria’s official Alikhbariya channel reported on Saturday that a man sustained injuries when an Israeli drone hit his truck near the town of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside. The Israeli military confirmed the operation in a statement, asserting that it targeted "a terrorist who advanced terror attacks in their final stages of preparation" in southern Syria, adding that the activity "posed an immediate threat to our forces."

Meanwhile, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemned the targeting of a "civilian vehicle" by an Israeli drone. The ministry stated that the attack constitutes a "flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the integrity of its territory, and a blatant breach of international law."

According to Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Adham Abu al-Hussam, reporting from the area, the strike hit a small delivery truck on the main road between the Beit Jinn farmland and the town itself. Local residents identified the victim as a civilian driver delivering goods, and neighbors rushed him to a hospital where he is in stable condition with a hand injury.

Muhsen al-Mustafa, a security and strategic researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies in Damascus, noted that Israel increasingly treats southern Syria as a security zone. A Syrian diplomatic source told Al Jazeera that Damascus remains committed to de-escalation, pursuing a security arrangement with Israel through United States mediation based on the 1974 disengagement agreement.