Israeli forces conduct new raids in Syria’s Quneitra countryside, set up checkpoints

ISTANBUL

The Israeli army renewed its violations of Syria’s sovereignty on Saturday by entering villages in the countryside of the southwestern Quneitra province and setting up checkpoints, Syrian media reported.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israeli troops moved into the village of Ain Ziwan using five military vehicles and established a temporary checkpoint in the area.

Israeli forces also entered the village of al-Ajraf in central Quneitra countryside with four military vehicles and set up a checkpoint to search passersby, the channel added.

The incursion came a day after dozens of Syrians held a protest in the city of al-Salam in Quneitra province to denounce the ongoing Israeli attacks on residents and property, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA.

Despite Syria’s government posing no direct military threat to Israel, Israeli airstrikes have targeted Syrian territory, killing civilians and destroying military sites, vehicles, weapons, and ammunition belonging to the Syrian army.

Damascus and Tel Aviv are engaged in negotiations toward a potential security agreement, but Syria has conditioned any deal on restoring conditions on the ground to what they were before Dec. 8, 2024.

Israel has occupied most of Syria’s Golan Heights since 1967. After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, Israel declared the collapse of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and moved to occupy the Syrian buffer zone.

Syrians say the continued Israeli violations are undermining efforts to restore stability and hampering government plans to attract investment to improve the country’s economic conditions.