UPDATE - Israeli forces raid Quneitra countryside in latest violation of Syria’s sovereignty

ADDS DETAILS

By Abdulsalam Fayez, Betul Yilmaz and Rania Abu Shamala

DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL (AA) - Israeli forces staged three raids Monday in the countryside of Syria’s southwestern province of Quneitra, violating the nation’s sovereignty, local media reported.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said Israeli forces set up a military checkpoint on a road linking the towns of Samdaniya al-Sharqiya and Khan Arnabah after raiding the area with two 4x4 vehicles.

Israeli forces later withdrew from the area, the agency said.

Later, SANA reported that Israeli forces advanced into the village of Umm A‘zam in the central countryside of Quneitra.

An Israeli patrol made up of three Humvee military vehicles also advanced around the Al-Mantra dam in the village of al-Samdaniya and then continued moving toward the village of al-Ajraf.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army or Syrian authorities on the report.

Israeli incursions in Quneitra have recently intensified, with locals complaining of advances into their farmland as well as the destruction of hundreds of acres of forests, arrests of residents, and the establishment of military checkpoints.

On Sunday, four young Syrians from the same family were arrested by Israeli forces during a raid in Khan Arnabah.

The Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes on Syria and more than 400 cross-border raids into the southern provinces since December 2024, according to government data.

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 the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.