LONDON: Israeli forces advanced on Sunday along the Al-Hiran–Al-Rafid road in the southern countryside of Quneitra province in southwest Syria, establishing a temporary checkpoint and stopping civilians, state media reported.
The force, made up of three military vehicles, searched civilian pedestrians and passing vehicles during the incursion, the state-run agency SANA reported.
No arrests or clashes were reported.
Sunday’s move follows an operation a day earlier in the village of Al-Ajraf in the northern Quneitra countryside, where Israeli troops set up a temporary checkpoint, searched civilians and erected a large surveillance camera that was later dismantled before they withdrew, Syrian media said.
Also on Saturday, Syria’s Al-Ekhbariya TV reported that an Israeli force entered the Wadi Al-Raqad area in the western countryside of Daraa province, setting up a checkpoint at the Wadi Al-Raqad bridge and searching a home before pulling back without making any arrests.
No further details were reported.
These latest incursions come amid months of recurring Israeli ground operations, raids and searches across the southern Syrian Arab Republic, which Syrian officials and rights groups say breach the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that created a UN-monitored buffer zone along the Golan Heights.
Since the fall of Syria’s longtime President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive on Dec. 8, 2024, Israel has pushed forces deeper into that zone.
Following Assad’s ouster, Israeli troops crossed from the occupied Golan Heights — Syrian territory Israel seized in 1967 — into several villages and towns inside the demilitarized area in Quneitra, carrying out home raids and ordering residents to leave, according to rights monitors.
Over the next six months, the Israeli military destroyed or damaged at least 23 civilian structures in three villages, displacing entire families, the London-based rights monitor Amnesty International said in May.
Those violations have continued in recent months, with monitors documenting hundreds of Israeli operations in Quneitra and Daraa, including ground incursions, searches, civilian detentions and land clearing.
In a report released in May, Amnesty said the destruction of civilian homes in southern Syria since Assad’s downfall should be investigated as possible “war crimes.”
The group’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa said Israel’s pattern of demolishing homes in Gaza, southern Lebanon and southern Syria “has been carried out with total impunity, displacing and shattering the lives of countless families across the region.”
The incursions come as Israel signals plans to expand settlements in the occupied Golan. In April, The Times of Israel reported that the government approved a $334 million plan to bring thousands more Israeli civilians into the territory.
New York-based Human Rights Watch described the April 17 Cabinet decision as a “clear statement of intent to commit war crimes.”
Israeli troops have been reportedly operating up to about 15 km inside Syrian territory, with officials saying the aim is to defend the border and intercept weapons they argue could threaten Israel if they reach “hostile forces.”
