DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL

Israeli forces on Friday briefly detained two young men at a checkpoint they set up in Quneitra province in southwestern Syria, following an incursion into several villages in the area.

The Syrian state-run Alikhbaria TV channel reported that the two men were detained after they were stopped at a checkpoint established between the town of Umm Batna and the village of Al-Ajraf in the Quneitra countryside.

The two were later released, the outlet said, without providing further details.

At dawn on Friday, an Israeli force consisting of eight military vehicles advanced into the Quneitra countryside, moving from the Adnaniyah point toward the villages of Umm Al-Azam and Ruwaihina, passing through the villages of Rasm Al-Halabi, Al-Mushairfa, and Umm Batna.

The raid came shortly after Israeli warplanes were seen flying at low altitude over Quneitra, coinciding with the incursion of Israeli forces into several villages in the province, according to the channel.

Syrian government data shows that since Dec. 2024, Israel has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated a 1974 agreement with Syria.