LONDON: Israeli forces on Sunday bombed military sites near Jandal Castle on Mount Hermon in southwestern Syria that had been used by the forces of now-deposed President Bashar Assad, Syrian state media reported. Israeli forces also shelled an area southeast of Al-Rafid, a town in the southern Quneitra countryside, Alikhbariah TV said. In a separate strike, Israeli forces fired several artillery rounds at the Bir Ajam woodland west of Zubaida, a village in central Quneitra, the broadcaster said. The strikes were reported in territory under Israeli military control since December 2024, when Israeli forces moved into the UN-monitored buffer zone after Assad’s government fell. Israel subsequently took control of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, including its summit. Sunday’s reported attacks were the latest in a series of Israeli military operations in southwestern Syria that have included raids, arrests, land clearing and shelling. Syria’s interim government, led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has condemned the operations as violations of Syrian sovereignty and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, which established the buffer zone between Israeli- and Syrian-held territory following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Damascus has repeatedly demanded that Israeli forces leave Syrian territory and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw fully from southern Syria. However, earlier this month, Defense Minister Israel Katz, during a visit to troops in southern Syria alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israeli forces would remain in the “security zone” Israel seized after Assad’s fall.