LONDON: Israeli forces carried out a raid in Quneitra Governorate in the southern Syrian Arab Republic on Wednesday. It was the third consecutive day on which such an operation had taken place, and came as work began this week to establish a military barrier in the province. The Israeli troops shot and wounded a man with a disability in the town of Jubata Al-Khashab, detained him and then withdrew from the area, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Quneitra, one of 14 governorates in Syria, is located in the southwest of the country and borders the Golan Heights, which was occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 by Israel. Since Monday, Israeli forces have reportedly targeted Syrian farmers near the village of Beit Jinn and advanced, with tanks, to positions close to Al-Muallaqa village in Quneitra. Ibrahim Olabi, the Syrian ambassador to the UN, said on Monday that the Golan Heights remained Syrian territory and Israel’s actions to annex it were null and void under international law, as well as UN Security Council Resolution 497. The US, under President Donald Trump, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019, but most countries continue to regard it as occupied Syrian territory. After the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in December 2024, Israeli forces occupied parts of Syrian territories in Quneitra and Daraa governorates, as well as a demilitarized UN buffer zone established in 1974. This week, Israeli forces commenced work on the so-called “Sufa 53” line in Quneitra province, a 70-kilometer military barrier running parallel to the 1974 ceasefire separation line that officials warn will result in the seizure of vast areas of land from Syrian villages.