Israel occupies 3 new villages in southern Syria

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – Israel has occupied three new villages in southern Syria as Tel Aviv deepened its military incursion into the country following the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Israeli army forces seized Jamlah in Daraa province and the villages of Mazraat Beit Jinn and Maghar al-Mir in the Damascus countryside, according to Anadolu reporters.

Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8 after anti-regime groups seized control of Damascus. The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters captured key cities across the country in a swift offensive that lasted less than two weeks.

Taking advantage of Assad’s fall, Israel has intensified its airstrikes against military sites across Syria, in blatant violation of the country’s sovereignty.

Israel also declared the collapse of a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria and deployed its forces within the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights – a territory Israel has occupied since 1967. This move has been widely condemned by the United Nations and several Arab nations.

According to the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the buffer zone “extends over 75 kilometers in length and ranges in width from approximately 10 kilometers in the center to 200 meters in the far south.”

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi