DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- 
Israeli forces shelled the outskirts of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside on Friday after launching an incursion into southern Syria with nine military vehicles and kidnapping a shepherd in Daraa province, Syrian media reported.
Israeli forces carried out artillery shelling on the outskirts of Beit Jinn, Alikhbariah TV said. The broadcaster did not report the outcome of the shelling, and there was no immediate comment from the Syrian regime. 
In an earlier development, Israeli military vehicles entered the Wadi al-Raqad area, Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah television reported, without providing further details about the nature of their movements. 
The broadcaster later said an Israeli force kidnapped a shepherd during the incursion into Wadi al-Raqad. Wadi al-Raqad is located in the Yarmouk Basin area of the Dara’a countryside and has witnessed repeated Israeli incursions and military movements in recent months.
Southern Syria has witnessed repeated Israeli incursions since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government on Dec. 8, 2024, when Israel announced the collapse of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and occupied the Syrian buffer zone and other areas. 
Damascus demands that Tel Aviv withdraw to the lines held before Dec. 8, 2024, and has reaffirmed its commitment to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement.
The Israeli incursion came as Syria under Abu Muhammad al-Jolani continued to be defined by recurring violence and unrest, a constant feature since he wrested power in December 2024.
In Dara’a, security forces announced Friday they had identified the cell behind Thursday’s killing of three Jolani forces in Al-Sanamayn. Five suspects were arrested.
In Sweida, the Druze-majority city outside Jolani’s control since July 2025 clashes killed more than 2,000 people, residents faced a fourth consecutive day without electricity and water, with bakeries halted and food supplies depleted.
Fuel-price protests — described as the largest since Assad’s fall — continued after the takfiri regime raised diesel prices by 40% on September 13.
Jolani’s energy minister Muhammad al-Bashir announced a partial retreat Thursday, introducing a three-tier diesel pricing system. Protests have spread across Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib, with demonstrators burning tires and blocking roads.
Since Jolani consolidated power, Syria has seen four major episodes of ethno-sectarian violence: the Alawite massacres in the coastal region in early 2025, attacks on Druze in April 2025, the Sweida massacre in July 2025, and clashes with Kurdish-led forces in January 2026. Some 1,700 people were killed across these incidents.