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 it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.

Israel announced Sunday that it carried out a special ground operation in Syria "in recent months," according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli military says it has seized a Syrian citizen in the current war's first announced ground operation in Syria